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Douglass, H. Paul 1871-1953. 


How shall country youth be 
served? 








Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/nowshallcountryyOOdoug 


Institute of Social and Religious Research 


HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH 
BE SERVED? 


H. PAUL DOUGLASS 


The Institute of Social and Religious Re- 
search, which is responsible for this publice’.on, 
was organized in January, 1921, as the Com- 
mittee on Social and Religious Surveys. It 
conducts and publishes studies and surveys and 
promotes conferences for their consideration. 
The Institute’s aim is to combine the scientific 
method with the religious motive. It co- 
operates with other social and religious agen- 
cies, but is itself an independent organization. 


The directorate of the Institute 1s composed 
of: John R. Mott, Chairman; Raymond B. 
Fosdick, Treasurer; Kenyon L. Butterfield, 
Recording Secretary; James L. Barton, W. H. 
P. Faunce and Paul Monroe. Galen M. 
Fisher is Executwe Secretary. The offices 
are at 370 Seventh Avenue, New York City. 


HOW Bact FEE TS ee, 
COUNTRY YOUTH: 
BE SERVED? 


Aare DUD yi Obey Diigo RALSS 
WORK OF CERTAIN NATIONAL 
CHARACTER-BUILDING AGENCIES 





BY 
H. PAUL*DOUGLASS 





GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1926, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 
Pe 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


PREFACE 


This report is based upon a first-hand study of representative 
samples of the “rural” work of five national character-building 
agencies, namely, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the 
Young Women’s Christian Association, the Boy Scouts of 
America, the Girl Scouts, Inc., and the Camp Fire Girls. Less 
extensive collateral studies were also made of the work of the 
Junior Extension Clubs of the United States and State Ex- 
tension Services and of Sunday School Associations or Coun- 
cils of Religious Education where these were organized on a 
comparable basis. A brief narrative of the origin, conduct and 
formal methodology of the project appears in the Appendix.’ 


VIEWPOINT AND LIMITATIONS 


The rural work of these agencies is not the original nor the 
total work of any of them except of the Junior Extension 
Clubs. While, as among agencies, the proportion of the rural 
work varies greatly as compared with the total, in no case but 
the one just mentioned is it the principal field judged either by 
the general interest of the agencies themselves or by the repu- 
tation they enjoy.’ 

Again, while, as proclaimed by their names, all of the agen- 
cies studied exist primarily for the service of youth, some have 
a greater age-range than others and may, in their general work, 
have large ministries for adults. The rural work, on the other 
hand, is much more generally limited to minors. The great 
bulk of it is for boys and girls or young men and women who 
have not yet reached their majority. All the agencies, how- 
ever, are operated by adults, and all enlist considerable numbers 

1 Appendix I and V. 

2The “town and country” work of the Young Men’s Christian Association 
is 4 per cent. of the total. (International Committee, Bureau of Records, 
Bulletin 14, January, 1924.) No other agency has formally calculated its 


proportion. 
Vv 


vi PREFACE 


of them as leaders, constituents of varying degrees and financial 
supporters. The study, therefore, treats the agencies from the 
standpoint of their function of serving youth, and regards the 
adult constituencies as comprising local auxiliary forces for this 
purpose, although a relatively small part of their activities is 
expressly designed for adults and all participating adults un- 
doubtedly get incidental personal benefits. 


AUSPICES AND OBJECTIVES 


In undertaking the study, the Institute of Social and Re- 
ligious Research sought formally to associate with itself the 
national agencies concerned, and most of them, by official 
action, agreed to participation. The study was formulated 
and subsequently criticized by an advisory committee, which 
included persons especially competent in the field of rural in- 
terests or social investigation.* In its prosecution by the Insti- 
tute, it had the close codperation of many representatives of 
the agencies, both at headquarters and in the field, who spent 
many hours in helping the staff to secure first-hand objective 
information, in giving personal evidence, and in considering 
formulated results. 


A SIGNIFICANT RURAL PROBLEM 


A concrete situation—that is to say, the actual series of deeds 
and processes constituting the effort of these and similar agen- 
cies to help the people of the smaller American communities— 
presents a significant subject for social investigation. In trying 
to solve rural problems these agencies have, among other things, 
created a new problem; namely, themselves, their activities and 
relationships. 

The resultant problem has two obvious phases. First, it con- 
cerns the effort of agencies approaching rural civilization from 
outside to import into it certain novel ideas and practices be- 
lieved to be for the good of town and country youth. Secondly, 
the problem is complicated by the fact that this effort is put 


8 See Appendix IT. 
4For list of advisors and record of their participation, see Appendix IIT. 


PREFACE vii 


forth by numerous agencies each acting independently and all 
making somewhat similar claims for themselves; a circum- 
stance that incidentally involves rather frequent contacts with 
the same communities and people and thus with one another 
in the local field. 

The crux of the problem in its first phase is how to natu- 
ralize externally promoted movements within rural communi- 
ties. Concretely this means the process of securing like- 
mindedness on the part of the people of these communities 
throughout rural America as to the needs of boys and girls 
and how to supply them; such people, for example, as the 
small town merchant, the retired farmer, the country school- 
teacher, the village garage keeper and auto mechanic, the house- 
wife and clergyman both in the town and the open country, 
and the working farmer. It means carrying the process to 
the point where they become accustomed to organized partner- 
ship with the national promotional agencies in work for boys 
and girls until finally they come to regard such work as a 
recognized and permanent part of their own community life.° 

The objective of the study in this aspect was to determine 
how far what has actually happened is a genuine, sound and 
permanent process of social integration and how far it is some- 
thing trivial and forced—rather an attempted grafting of alien 
characteristics upon an unwilling and obdurate rural type than 
a legitimate naturalization. 

The second phase of the problem appears when rural people 
of the kind described above find numerous national agencies 
making simultaneous appeals to them in a given area or com- 
munity; and especially when more than one agency is already 
trying to maintain organization in a given place, to find leader- 
ship for it and to gain support by cultivation of the same public 
and youth constituency. Of this, extreme illustrations were 
found such as one furnished by a Connecticut pastor. “In my 
small rural suburb,” he said, “no less than five agencies are 
attempting to organize the life of young people constructively. 
First there were the Boy Scouts; then the Young Men’s Chris- 
tian Association. Next came the state through its rural ex- 


5 For a fuller discussion of utilization, see p. 82 ff, 


viii PREFACE 


tension clubs for boys and girls. The public schools mean- 
while felt it their duty to organize and supervise the activities 
of their pupils out of school hours. Finally a fellow pastor 
attempted to promote organized Sunday-school classes through- 
out the community as part of the official method of the religious 
education movement.” How many like cases there are, how 
the agencies behave toward one another in such cases and how 
the communities feel about it became one of the keenest in- 
terests of the inquiry. 


THE MOTIVE OF THE INVESTIGATION 


The motives of the investigation were naturally not identical 
for the participating agencies and for the Institute. <A large 
part of the interest of the agencies was immediately practical. 
They hoped that the results of the study would help them to 
do their own work better; that is, would enable them to im- 
prove their methods, while leaving their working postulates 
undisturbed. And, as a matter of fact, a number of the 
agencies did make considerable and frequent use of the results 
of the investigation during its progress, as, for example, in 
formal reports and as a basis for recommendations of policy. 

The motive of the Institute’s investigators was more far- 
reaching. The study was conceived as a piece of research in 
applied sociology, which might well challenge the working 
postulates of the agencies. These central agencies, with head- 
quarters in cities, and commanding all the modern resources of 
education and propaganda, had the laudable ambition to make 
their work nation-wide. What, then, should be their precise 
function, and in particular, how should they approach rural 
civilization and rural communities? For the peculiarity of the 
situation lay in the fact that though the object of the agencies’ 
effort, so far as this study was concerned, was rural, their struc- 
tures and major interests were, actually if not confessedly, 
urban. 

The special problem, was, therefore, How is rural civilization 
to be treated when one attempts to improve it? What is the 
role of the indigenous agencies already rooted in rural com- 


PREFACE ix 


munities and essential to accepted aspects of them? What are 
the rights and responsibilities, for example, of the church and 
school in small communities in connection with such an effort? 
The whole constituted a problem of the relationships between 
the center and the circumference, the city and the country, the 
national and the local, in the evolution of the American social 
order. If not to answer the problem, at least to open up a 
representative field in which it was outstanding, and to suggest 
methods of possible solution, was the ultimate motive of the 
study. 


METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 


The essential data of the study were secured in a series of 
field investigations made community by community in fifty- 
three counties taken from all sections of the United States.® 
These investigations were supplemented by extensive examina- 
tion of data and information supplied by territorial and national 
headquarters of the agencies and by other official sources. 

Two kinds of information about the work of the agencies 
in these communities were sought: (1) measurable objective 
facts which could be statistically expressed and compared; and 
(2) evidence, primarily by direct testimony, as to the opinions 
and attitudes of people concerned. The first kind was elicited, 
for example, by the question, How many members have you 
here ?, and by comparing the answers of the different agencies; 
the second kind by the question, What kind of a man repre- 
sents the X agency and what values has its work for the boys 
and girls of your community?, and by recording the replies 
as expressions of personal feeling and trends of community 
reaction. 

The first type of information was gathered by means of 
elaborate schedules, the tabulated results of which appear in 
the statistical tables accompanying the text.’ The second type 
was recorded in voluminous field notes embodying the sub- 
stance of interviews and the impressions of field workers. The 
results have received tabular formulation particularly in Chap- 


6 For list see p. xi. 
7 Tables appear at the end of the chapter based upon them, 


x PREFACE 


ters IX and XI and are used throughout the text as commentary 
on the facts as objectively established. 

The method of the study may thus be summarized as an 
extensive statistical sampling of facts involved in the work of 
the agencies, supplemented by an interpretative record of 
opinion and observation. 

The limitations of such a method are well understood. It 
undertakes primarily to compare measurable facts. No tech- 
nique exists for measuring some of the vital phenomena in- 
volved, as, for example, the character-building influence of a 
given discipline or set of activities. A complementary ex- 
haustive case study of a small area or number of organizations 
would obviously penetrate to levels of intimate understanding 
which the limits of the present study forbade.® 


METHOD OF PRESENTATION 


The present volume is a report exhibiting the data of the 
investigation and closely following their structure, rather than 
a treatise remotely derived from them. 

It was preceded by three preliminary reports. The first two 
dealt in greater fullness with separate blocks of data, while the 
third presented the entire data of the present study in sub- 
stantially the same organization but in more abbreviated form. 
Each of the three was submitted in manuscript form for criti- 
cism to the agencies and available advisors, and their results 
had extensive discussion in two Findings Conferences held in 
May, 1924, and February, 1925, respectively,® in the light of 
which the present report has been thoroughly revised. 

‘The scope of the investigation and the structure of the report 
are shown in the following outline of chapters. 

8 Representatives of certain agencies have advanced the opinion that case 
studies would have resulted in more favorable impressions of their work. 
But it must be remembered that case studies, in order to be decently 
fair, would have to include examples of mediocrity or failure as well as of 
success. This means that they would have to take account of the inadequacies 
and frequent futilities of average work, of the disgusted revulsion of com- 
munities from failure when it has been contemptible or demeaning, and of 
the bitterness of disillusioned individuals who feel that they have been fooled. 
Impressions left by realistic statements of such facts would be infinitely more 
distressing than sets of cold-blooded but relatively non-committal figures can 
be. The present method doubtless fails to express the best that could be said 


of the agencies, but it also omits to say the worst, 
9 Appendix I, 


PREFACE xi 


Part I is a systematic presentation of the data. It concerns 
(1) the initiating national agencies (Chapters I, II and III); 
(2) the responsive communities (Chapters IV and V); (3) 
the role of the individual volunteer leader of boys’ and girls’ 
work who functions now as an initiating and again as a re- 
sponsive agent (Chapter VI); (4) the effort of the agencies 
and of the community to work together and the major issues 
growing out of this effort (Chapters VII, VIII and IX) ; and 
(5) the specific methods used in the character-building process 
for youth as carried on among them (Chapter X). This 
main exposition of the results of the investigation is followed 
by a section setting forth the verdicts of popular opinion as 
discovered upon the field (Chapter XI). 

Part II consists of a systematic exposition and expanded 
narrative of discussion by the participating staff, agency repre- 
sentatives and advisors, of the postulates and conclusions of the 
study, and of the final recommendations based upon it. It has 
three chapters: “Attitudes and Assumptions” (Chapter XII), 
“Major Issues” (Chapter XII1) and “Suggested Experiments 
in Codperation” (Chapter XIV), followed by the Appendix. 

Statistical tables follow each chapter of Part I. In the 
interest of brevity, the text concerns itself primarily with 
major and common tendencies. It does not attempt to tell 
the full story as revealed by the tables, especially as to differ- 
ences among agencies, In this respect, responsibility for study- 
ing the tables is laid upon the reader. 


TABLE I—REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF 53 COUNTIES 
STUDIED 


New ENGLAND 
Maine: Cumberland; Vermont: Windsor; Massachusetts: Worcester, 


Barnstable; Connecticut: Hartford. 


MinptE ATLANTIC 
New York: Monroe, Chautauqua, Oneida, Orange; New Jersey: Bergen, 
Burlington, Camden; Pennsylvania: Columbia, Lackawanna. 


SOUTHERN 

Delaware: New Castle, Kent; Maryland: Harford; North Carolina: 
Orange; South Carolina: Spartanburg; Florida: Polk, Pinellas; Alabama: 
Colbert; Kentucky: Harlan, Bourbon. 


xii PREFACE 


East CENTRAL 
Ohio: Coshocton, Fairfield, Wyandot; Indiana: Noble, Bartholomew; 


Michigan: Gogebic, Kent, Allegan, Livingston; Illinois: Shelby, Du Page; 
Wisconsin: Walworth. 


West CENTRAL : 
Iowa: Calhoun, Buena Vista, Henry; Missouri: Jasper; Kansas: Sedg- 


wick, McPherson; Nebraska: Gage; South Dakota: Brookings; North 
Dakota: Barnes. 


MountTAaINn : 
Colorado: Weld; Wyoming: Laramie. 


Paciric Coast 
California: Imperial, Orange, Tulare, Santa Clara; Washington: Pierce, 


Walla Walla. 


CHAPTER 


e 
i 
Til. 
DV: 
lg 


VI 


ALT, 
XIII. 
PLY. 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE . 


BAL Dat 
LHE PACTS INU THE CASE 


Tue AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WorRK . 
How THE AGENCIES OPERATE 

EFFECT OF STARTING WITH TOWNS AND Cre 
TAKING Root IN THE LocaL COMMUNITY 


How CoMMUNITIES MAKE THE WorRK THEIR 
Own 


LocaL LEADERS OF pee AND Gike Vinee 


. INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 

. FINANCES OF TERRITORIAL Once 

. CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN THE Loca FIELD 
. How CHARACTER 1S DEVELOPED THROUGH AC- 


SAVLDY... 


. Is tat WorrE streamate, ee ; 


BARU GObL 


DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 
Mayor Issuers 
SUGGESTED Tf aac IN teat ste 


APPENDICES 


. CHRONOLOGY OF THE STUDY 
. List oF CoGPERATING AGENCIES 


Xili 


PAGE 


25 
38 
St 
64 


82 
93 
104 
118 
127 


142 
155 


169 
187 
215 


237 
239 


xiv CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 
III. Apvisors. ‘ : ‘ ; : : ¢ NOE ee 
IV. Estimates oF MEMBERSHIP : oe ele eae 

V. METHODOLOGY Stes aa OSE hae. UP ain eat 
VI. RELATION TO PREVIOUS AND Danan STUDIES 
oF RurAL AGENCIES . 246 


VII. Statistics oF RuRAL WorK OF series Me 
TIONAL AGENCIES . : ; Yah ey nee 


IRAE: 


VII. 


VIII. 


XI. 


LIST OF TABLES 


REGIONAL DisTRIBUTION OF 53 COUNTIES 
STUDIED . 


PROPORTION OF EACH AGENCY'S 
“RURAL” MEMBERSHIP INCLUDED IN 
THIS STUDY (53 COUNTIES) 


JuNiok Extension Work (19 _ INoI- 
VIDUAL COUNTIES) 


Per CENT. oF YoUNG PEOPLE WHO ee 
MEMBERS OF ORGANIZED GROUPS OF 
ANY OF THE AGENCIES (33 INDIVIDUAL 
COUNTIES Silo pig atu iihonn aun ata 


Type OF SUPERVISION By AGENCIES IN 
225 INCORPORATED PLACES (53 CoUN- 
TIES) 


Type oF INTENSIVE SUPERVISION BY 
AGENCIES IN ORGANIZED AREAS . 

NuMBER PER CoUNTY OF THE FouR 
AGENCIES Havinac CouNTy ORrRGANI- 
ZATION (45 COUNTIES) Srey 

DEGREE OF OccUPANCY By EACH 
AGENCY OF PLaces Havinc FEWER 


THAN 10,000 INHABITANTS (5 3, CouN- 


TIES ) PCa wala iets 


NuMBER OF INCORPORATED AND Now 
INCORPORATED PLACES OCCUPIED BY 
THE AGENCIES (53 COUNTIES) . 

ORIGINS OF 62 CoUNTY ORGANIZATIONS 
oF THREE AGENCIES 2 ; 

AMOUNT OF CONSULTATION PRECEDING 
27 CouUNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES ’ “ ; ce i 

xvV 


PAGE 


Xi 


32 


YY 


OM 


AI 


AI 


45 


46 


49 


49 


xvi 


+ UR 


XIII. 


XIV. 


Vi 


XVI. 


XVIT. 


XVIII. 


XIX. 


XX, 


XXII. 


LIST OF TABLES 


CHARACTER OF SPECIFIC DEMAND FOR 
28 CouUNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES : : A : . : 

DEGREE OF PuBLIC APPROVAL OF 39 
CouNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES : ; ¥ ; 

AGE OF 66 CoUNTY OReM ee ae OF 
THREE AGENCIES . } 

NUMBER OF PLACES Gentes BY anaes 
OF THE AGENCIES IN COUNTIES CLASSI- 
FIED BY CONCENTRATION OF POPULA- 
TION (53 COUNTIES) 


S1zE oF INCORPORATED PLAcEs HAVING 
FEWER THAN 10,000 INHABITANTS 
OccuPIED By ANY OF THE AGENCIES 
(53 COUNTIES) 


CoMPARATIVE FREQUENCY OF SPECIFIED 
SUBSIDIARY CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS 
IN Various TYPES OF RURAL AND 
SMALL City COMMUNITIES . 


DISTRIBUTION OF THE RURAL AND SMALL 
City PopULATION IN THE 53 CoUN- 
TIES COMPARED WITH Its DISTRIBU- 
TION IN THE UNITED STATES 


DISTRIBUTION OF THE RURAL AND SMALL 
City POPULATION IN 29 COUNTIES 
Havine Non-CoNCENTRATED POPULA- 
TIONS COMPARED WITH ITs DISTRIBU- 
TION IN THE UNITED STATES 


DISTRIBUTION BY SIZE oF ALL INCORPO- 
RATED PLACES OF FEWER THAN I0,000 
INHABITANTS COMPARED WITH THE 
DISTRIBUTION OF AGENCIES IN THOSE 
PLACES (53 COUNTIES) . 


PROPORTION OF PLACES OF VARYING SIZE 
OccuPIED By ANY OF THE AGENCIES 
IN COUNTIES CLASSIFIED BY CONCEN- 
TRATION OF POPULATION (53 COUN- 
TIES ) : ‘ : . ; ' : 


PAGE 


50 


50 


50 


50 


eis) 


54 


58 


58 


58 


60 


XXII. 


XXIII. 


XXIV. 


XXV. 


XXVI. 


XXVIT. 


XXVIII. 


XXIX, 


XXX. 


XXXII, 


XXXIT, 


XXXII. 


LIST OF TABLES 


DISTRIBUTION OF THE PopULATION IN 
COUNTIES CLASSIFIED BY CONCENTRA- 
TION OF POPULATION (53 COUNTIES) 


DISTRIBUTION BY SIZE OF THE INCORPO- 
RATED PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES 
SUBURBAN TO CITIES OF 100,000 Popu- 
LATION AND OVER 


NUMBER OF INCORPORATED Dives OF 
VARYING SizE Havine SPECIFIED 
NUMBER OF AGENCIES (53 COUNTIES) 


AVERAGE NuMBER oF “OTHER SOCIAL 
AGENCIES” IN SUBURBAN AND NOoN- 
SUBURBAN PLACES OF VARYING SIZE 
(53 COUNTIES) 


DISTRIBUTION OF PLACES IN COUNTIES 
WITH CONCENTRATED AND Non-Con- 
CENTRATED POPULATIONS HAVING 
SPECIFIED NUMBER OF AGENCIES 


NuMBER OF INCORPORATED PLACES OF 
VaRYING SizE HaviInG COMPETITIVE 
AND Non-CoOMPETITIVE UNITS OF THE 
AGENCIES (53 COUNTIES) 


DISTRIBUTION, BY SIZE OF PLACE, OF 
AGENCY Units UNpDER INTENSIVE AND 
Non-INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 


DISTRIBUTION BY SIZE OF PLACES OF 
Boy Scour Units UNpbER INTENSIVE 
AND Non-INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 


PERMANENCE OF AGENCIES, 1913-1924 
(100 CASES) . 


LENGTH OF LIFE OF 232 ina ih ae 
OF THE AGENCIES IN PLACES OF VARY- 
ING SIZE e e e ° o o 


DISTRIBUTION BY AGE OF 9,295 Wigs Shee 
OF THE AGENCIES (22 COUNTIES), 


NUMBER OF ORGANIZED GROUPS OF THE 
AGENCIES CLASSIFIED BY REGION AND 
BY TYPE OF SUPERVISION (53 COUN- 
UTES Jay MA caesk ce MeL yet er fo Ne 


61 


61 


61 


62 


63 


68 


74 


XVill 


XXXIV. 


XXXV. 


XXXVI. 


XXXVIL. 


XXXVIUII. 


XXXIX. 


XL. 


XLI. 


XLIT. 


XLII. 


XLIV. 


XLV. 


XLVI. 


LIST OF TABLES 


NuMBER OF MEMBERS OF ORGANIZED 
GROUPS OF THE AGENCIES CLASSIFIED 
By REGION AND BY TYPE OF SUPER- 
VISION (53 COUNTIES) 


AVERAGE SIZE OF ORGANIZED GROUPS 
OF THE AGENCIES CLASSIFIED BY 
REGION AND BY TYPE OF SUPERVISION 
(S32 COUNTIES © Oh oes 


DISTRIBUTION OF LocAL AND AGENCY 
INITIATIVE IN STARTING 495 LocaL 
Units oF THREE AGENCIES . 


Ratio oF Lapsep To Livinc UNITs oF 
THE AGENCIES 


LencTH OF Lire oF 227 Laprsep UNITS 
OF THE AGENCIES IN INTENSIVELY 
SUPERVISED AND Non-INTENSIVELY 
SUPERVISED AREAS 


DATE OF ESTABLISHMENT OF 579 ORGAN- 
IZED GROUPS OF THE AGENCIES . 


PROPORTION OF AGENCY MEMBERS FROM 
Farm FAMILIES . ; pe é 


RaTio oF ATTENDANCE TO ENROLLMENT 
AT MEETINGS oF LOCAL UNITS OF THE 
AGENCIES ° Pt “e ‘e@ e ‘e 


PROPORTION OF AGENCY MEMBERS 
UNDER 16 YEARS OF AGE WHo ARE 
SUNDAY-SCHOOL PUPILS . f ; 


PROPORTION OF AGENCY MEMBERS 16 
YEARS OF AGE AND OvER WHO ARE 
CHURCH-MEMBERS 


DisTRIBUTION BY RANK OF 5,189 Boy 
SCOUTS AND 686 Girt Scouts 


DISTRIBUTION BY RANK OF 686 GIRL 
SCOUTS AND 359 CAMP Fire GirLs_ . 


DIsTRIBUTION BY TYPE OF 5,984 MEm- 
BERS OF THE YOUNG MEN’s CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION . . ‘ : 


PAGE 


75 


76 


77 


if 
78 


78 


78 


i 


8o 
SI 


SI 


SI 


XLVII. 


XLVIII. 
XLIX. 


LA 


LI. 


Lit. 
ABR E 


LIV. 


LV. 


LVI. 


LVII. 


LVIITI. 


LIX. 


LIST OF TABLES 


DisTRIBUTION BY TYPE OF 4,134 MeEm- 
BERS OF THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRIS- 
TIAN ASSOCIATION IN II INTENSIVELY 
SUPERVISED COUNTIES COMPARED 
WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL 
MEMBERS IN THE TOWN AND COUNTRY 
DEPARTMENT . 


PLAcEs OF MEETING OF ie eece Onee 
OF THE AGENCIES . sal doe 


SOURCES OF LEADERSHIP OF 382 ocr 
UNITS OF THE AGENCIES 


TENURE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEAD- 
QUARTERS OF 62 CouNTY ORGANIZA- 
TIONS OF THREE AGENCIES . , 


TENURE OF CAMP PROPERTY OF 60 
CouNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES ; : 


SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS OF 485 
Loca UNITS OF THE AGENCIES . 


DISTRIBUTION By AGE oF 488 UNPAID 
WoRKERS OF THE AGENCIES 


MEMBERSHIP AND MEETINGS PER YEAR 
oF LocAL COMMITTEES OF THE AGEN- 
CIES: 


DISTRIBUTION BY DEGREE OF Bore 
oF 476 UNPaID WORKERS OF THE 
AGENCIES 


DISTRIBUTION BY PROFESSIONAL OccuU- 
PATION OF 350 UnpaAip WorRKERS OF 
THE AGENCIES 


DIsTRIBUTION BY OCCUPATION OF 703 
Unpaip WoRKERS OF THE AGENCIES 


DISTRIBUTION BY Hours Per MontH 
GIVEN TO WoRK OF THE AGENCIES BY 
257 UNPAID WORKERS . 


DISTRIBUTION BY YEARS OF SERVICE DE- 
VOTED TO THE WoRK OF THE AGENCIES 
BY 425 UNPAID WORKERS .. 


xix 
PAGE 


SI 


gl 


QI 
92 
96 


100 


101 


Io! 


102 


102 


103 


xx 


LX. 


LXI. 


LXII. 
LXIII. 
LXIV. 

LXV. 
LXVI. 

LXVIL. 


LXVIITI. 


LXIX, 
LXX. 


LXXI. 


LXXII. 


LXXIII. 


LXXIV. 


LXXV. 


LIST OF TABLES 


DISTRIBUTION BY OCCUPATION OF MALE 
County COMMITTEEMEN AND OF 
LocaL Group LEADERS . 

NuMBER OF COMMUTERS AND NON- Goes 
MUTERS ON CERTAIN CoUNTY CoM- 
MITTEES OF TWO AGENCIES 


CLASSIFICATION BY SEX OF 74 PaID 
WorkKERS OF Four AGENCIES 


AGEs oF 66 PaAatp WoRKERS OF THREE 
AGENCIES 


DEGREE OF EDUCATION OF 68 Pie 
WORKERS OF THREE AGENCIES 


TECHNICAL EDUCATION OF 68 PaID 
WorKERS OF THREE AGENCIES 


EARLY ENVIRONMENT OF 49 Patp WorRK- 
ERS OF THREE AGENCIES 


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE OF 69 Rae 
WorkKErS OF THREE AGENCIES 


LENGTH OF TIME IN PRESENT POSITION 
OF 70 Patp WorKERS OF THREE AGEN- 
CIES’. 


SALARIES OF 72 ees Wonenae OF T HREE 
AGENCIES 


CLASSIFICATION BY pases OF 74 Bae 
EXECUTIVES OF Four AGENCIES . 


OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 
REGARDING THE ABILITY OF 51 PaIp 
WORKERS OF THREE AGENCIES 


NUMBER OF ORGANIZED UNITS OF THE 
AGENCIES IN COUNTIES WITH SPECI- 
FIED NUMBER OF Patp WoRKERS 


INCOMES OF 57 COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS 
oF THREE AGENCIES 


DISTRIBUTION OF SOURCES OF INCOME OF 
47 COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES t 

DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES OF 54 
CouNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES 


PAGE 


IIS 
116 


116 


116 


117 


119 


119 


I20 


LXXVI. 


LXXVII. 


LXXVIII. 


LXXIX. 


LXXX, 


LXXXI. 


LXXXII. 


LXXXITI. 


LXXXIV. 


LXXXV. 


LXXXVI. 


LIST OF TABLES 


EXPENDITURES OF 57 COUNTY ORGANI- 
ZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Cost PER County oF 37 CouNTy Or- 
GANIZATIONS 


OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 
REGARDING THE FINANCIAL CONDITION 
OF 47 CouUNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF 
THREE AGENCIES 


FINANCIAL CONDITION BY REGIONS OF 
65 County ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE 
AGENCIES AS RATED BY THE INVESTI- 
GATION 


RATING OF THE FINANCIAL CONDITION 
OF THE AGENCIES IN COUNTIES WHERE 
THERE 1s MorE THAN ONE AGENCY 


RELATION BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF 
AGENCIES PER COUNTY AND THE FI- 
NANCIAL CONDITION OF THE AGENCY 


NUMBER OF FAVORABLE AND UNFAVOR- 
ABLE OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE 
CITIZENS CLASSIFIED BY OCCUPATIONS 
AND BY THEIR RELATIONS TO THREE 
AGENCIES 


COMPETITIVE AND COOPERATIVE RELA- 
TIONSHIPS AMONG LOCAL UNITS OF 
THE AGENCIES 


NuMBER OF COMPETITIVE AND COOPERA- 
TIVE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE 
AGENCIES : , : 


NuMBER OF COUNTIES HAviING SPECI- 
FIED COMBINATIONS OF THE AGENCIES 
IN CouNTIES INTENSIVELY ORGANIZED 
BY ONE oR More AGENCY (46 Coun- 
TIES ) ; . : : : : 


ACTIVITIES IN THE CouNTy PROGRAMS 
oF THREE AGENCIES RANKED BY FRE- 
QUENCY OF MENTION IN LocaL PrRo- 
MOTIONAL LITERATURE . 


Xxi 
PAGE 


124 


124. 


124 


125 


125 


126 


129 


132 


141 


141 


Xxii 


LXXXVII. 


LXXXVIII. 


LXXXIX., 


PAG 


ACI. 


SCR 


XCIII. 


ASL 


XCV. 


XCVI. 


LIST OF TABLES 


CoMMON ELEMENTS IN THE PROGRAMS 
or ALL THE AGENCIES . 


ACTIVITIES IN THE COUNTY Paogeaere 
OF THE YOUNG MEN’s CHRISTIAN As- 
SOCIATION RANKED BY FREQUENCY OF 
MENTION IN 1923 REPORTS FROM 95 
COUNTIES ; 


AVERAGE DURATION pes ee OF Somers 
FIED Activities LisTep By 41 LocAL 
UNITS OF THE YOUNG MEN’s CHRIs- 
TIAN ASSOCIATION . 


AVERAGE DURATION PER ered OF Ca 
FIED AcTiviTies LisTED BY 39 LOCAL 
UNITS oF THE Boy ScouTs . 


AVERAGE DURATION PER YEAR OF SPECI- 
FIED ACTIVITIES OF 27 LocaL UNITS 
OF THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN 
ASSOCIATION . 


AVERAGE DURATION PER vee OF Cee 
FIED Activities Listep By I9 Loca, 
UNITS OF THE G?RL SCOUTS . 


AVERAGE DURATION OF SPECIFIED AC- 
TIVITIES LISTED BY 26 LocaL UNITS OF 
THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS . 


NuMBER OF FAVORABLE AND UNFAVOR- 
ABLE OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE 
Cit1zENS CONCERNING LocaL Work 
oF THREE AGENCIES . 


DISTRIBUTION OF VALUES ASCRIBED BY 
REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS TO LOCAL 
WorkK OF THREE AGENCIES . 


NuMBER OF ADVERSE JUDGMENTS ReE- 
GARDING THE WoRTH-WHILENESS OF 
THE WorK OF THE AGENCIES CoM- 
PARED WitH NUMBER OF CASES IN 
WuicH FINANCES ARE REPORTED 
PE OOR A ik f ; ; : 7 


PAGE 


147 


I51I 


152 


152 


153 


154 


154 


156 


157 


165 


PART I: THE FACTS IN THE CASE 


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PART I: THE FACTS IN THE CASE 


CHAPTER [| 
THE AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WORK 


Out of twenty-seven voluntary national agencies attempting 
to serve American rural communities on a philanthropic basis," 
this report covers the five already named in the Preface: 
namely, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Young 
Women’s Christian Association, the Boy Scouts of America, 
the Girl Scouts, Inc., and the Camp Fire Girls. These were 
studied as the major representatives of the organized forces 
having as their main object the fostering of character-building 
processes among youth. 

No limitation to these agencies was adopted in advance, and 
field study in the sample territory included whatever similar 
agencies it found. Examples of a number of others, enum- 
erated in the Preface, were encountered, and are treated in 
the text. The five above named were, however, so much the 
most frequent and outstanding that statistical data are in the 
main confined to them. 

The potential beneficiaries of these character-building proc- 
esses are about 14,000,000 young Americans between the ages 
of ten and twenty years inclusive, who live on the farms and 
in the villages and small towns of the country, constituting all 
told about 74,000 communities.’ 

The label “rural’’ as applied to this study, coupled with the 
fact that small cities are included in it, raises an issue and 


1This number is listed by the Conference of National Agencies Doing 
Rural Social Work in addition to governmental and constructive commercial 
agencies. 

2 Morse and Brunner, The Town and Country Church in the United States, 
p. 39. (Institute of Social and eater Research.) 


26 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


points out an apparent discrepancy which should be cleared up 
in advance. 

Just as the study did not predetermine the particular agencies 
to be included, neither did it fix the populational limits of the 
field to be explored. This was a matter properly left to be 
settled by the usage of the agencies. The organized rural 
work was usually found around some center of population, It 
was discovered that the agencies that maintain separate “rural” 
or “town and country” departments frequently included in these 
departments the administration of work in cities of 10,000, and 
occasionally even larger, population. Moreover, the character- 
istic methods employed by some of the agencies in their pre- 
ponderant city work were rarely maintained in places of less 
than 10,000. In other words, while there is no sharp dividing 
line, work in places of 10,000 population and less is fairly 
homogeneous with that in the more strictly rural areas. A 
population of 10,000 is, therefore, used as the upward limit. 
Most of the rural work, however, falls in places of 5,000 popu- 
lation or less.? 

Before inquiring just where and how far they have gone in 
their work for youth in communities of such size, it is im- 
portant to introduce a little more adequately the agencies them- 
selves, particularly in their rural characters. 


THE AGENCIES IN THEIR RURAL ASPECTS 


The agencies are co-workers in behalf of American rural 
youth. But they also represent movements with separate his- 
tories and somewhat distinct atmospheres. Consequently, even 
when their rivalry is not overt or consciously pursued, there is 
implicit in them some measure of competition for the leader- 
ship of youth according to their particular ideas and ideals. 

The differences among them, as discovered by this study, 
are not so great as the agencies think they are, but they are 
nevertheless genuine and to be taken into account. 

For an understanding of these differences it is beside the 
mark to appeal to formal statements, official or other, based on 


3 Table XVI. 


THE AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WORK 27 


the total work of the agencies. As already explained, the rural 
work is but a minor fraction of the total, and some of the 
agencies have never clearly defined their purposes in rural 
effort nor separately enumerated its results. In any event, it 
was deliberately decided that the data of the study should be 
obtained directly from observation of the actual functioning 
of the agencies in the field. 

The characterization of the agencies in the following para- 
graphs, therefore, does not start with such abstractions as 
“Town and Country Department of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association” or “Rural Scouts.” The people and processes 
covered under these terms have been encountered in action in 
all parts of the United States and studied as social forces, 
partly, at least, naturalized in regions and localities. Much 
of the national or general tradition of the respective agencies 
has doubtless survived ; but they all have taken on local coloring 
and limitations. Whatever official version of their respective 
movements they may receive from headquarters is diluted by 
local understanding and merged with local characteristics. It is 
this actual resultant—the work as it has come to be in the hands 
of the smaller communities and their inhabitants—which is 
now summarized. It should be understood, however, that 
since the study did not develop systematic categories of com- 
parison in this field, the summary here presented is essentially 
the chief investigator’s interpretation of what he and his col- 
leagues found and felt. 


YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 


In its rural work the Young Men’s Christian Association is 
the most obviously religious of the agencies compared. This 
is unmistakable; although its recreational work is more out- 
standing in the minds of communities,* and though the lack 
of adequate religious effort is sometimes criticized. The an- 
nounced objective: “To help win boys to Jesus Christ,” is 
commonly taken with real seriousness; and personal Christian 
consecration and Christian vocation are very strongly stressed 


4Table XCV, p. 157. 


28 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


in all the more general expressions of Young Men’s Christian 
Association work as found on the field. 

Beyond this explicit emphasis, the Young Men’s Christian 
Association is versatile in the forms of rural service under- 
taken, but opportunistic rather than philosophic in the choice 
of them. It is progressive in the search for new methods and 
devices, but perhaps less so in fundamental thinking. The 
movement is old enough to have developed a somewhat tradi- 
tional pattern of leadership, lay and professional—one pretty 
generally embodying a moderately conservative attitude in 
religious matters, though an attitude often decidedly progres- 
sive when compared with the position of the rural church. 


YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 


The Young Women’s Christian Association is more original, 
liberal and independent in its expression of religion. Con- 
sequently, in local verdicts it is sometimes termed “less re- 
ligious” than the Young Men’s Christian Association. It re- 
flects locally a rather definite reaction from conventional ec- 
clesiastical limitations. In other words, its adherents are not 
exactly the type of women who chiefly make up prayer meet- 
ing and women’s missionary society circles. They are more 
largely drawn from the ranks of economically independent 
women, a fact which accounts for their somewhat more varied 
contacts with the world of affairs than a strictly home environ- 
ment affords. The central problem of development is gener- 
ally phrased as one of personal adjustment to idealistic ends, 
with a strong sense that woman has a special version of this 
problem. Some of the outstanding leaders of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association approve the description of their 
movement as one of socially minded Christian feminism in 
which the realization of self and of sex in a world of social 
responsibility is an indivisible aim. The problem is worked 
out, characteristically, in an atmosphere of eager spiritual striv- 
ing which sometimes amounts to agitation. To a considerable 
degree this attitude towards life is shared by non-professional 
local leaders and is conveyed more or less fully to girls’ groups. 


THE AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WORK 29 


According to the testimony of representative citizens, how- 
ever, the rank and file of supporters in small communities do 
not always sense this atmosphere, but are inclined to think of 
the Young Women’s Christian Association as a semi-philan- 
thropic movement to care for poor or bad girls. 


BOY SCOUTS 


As a local movement the Boy Scouts unquestionably reflect 
the directness, aggressiveness and naiveté of organized busi- 
ness groups in America, projected into the realm of idealistic 
endeavor, ‘They appear to cherish a simple and unreflective 
faith in the value of manly and wholesome activities under 
forceful leadership of men of average and unpretentious moral 
standards, who are generous enough to give personal time to 
the interests of boys and to carry out a program definitely laid 
down. “Outing is three-fourths of Scouting’ impresses one 
as a slogan coming close to the facts. The character-building 
influence of the Scout virtues and the values of the specific 
achievements required for advancement are accepted as ob- 
viously good and self-demonstrating. What communities 
chiefly value in Scouting is the civic aspect of these accom- 
plishments. They are strongly believed to carry over into help- 
ful community life. Scouting, then, appeals to the kind, whole- 
some, honorable and rather inarticulately reverent man who is 
blessed with something of an outdoor spirit and is willing to 
acquire a fixed technique. This ideal, effectively phrased, has 
vastly impressed the lay mind of America. It has proved espe- 
cially welcome to educators as a supplement to their rather 
stilted required programs. It furnishes a simple and intel- 
ligible secular ideal which practical men, confident in straight- 
away promotional methods, can operate and be loyal to. It 
falls in with an era of organized business idealism and com- 
munity spirit expressed in the Rotary, Kiwanis and other men’s 
service clubs. Scouting has thus become the vehicle of one of 
the most impressive movements in behalf of youth measured 
either by its rapidity of growth or by the breadth of its appeal. 


30 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


GIRL SCOUTS AND CAMP FIRE GIRLS 


Agencies that do not have organization for intensive 
supervision, numerous local executives or close contacts with 
contiguous communities have less chance to carry any peculiar 
atmosphere and emphasis down into individual places. This 
was found to be true of the Girl Scouts and the Camp Fire 
Girls in the rural areas studied. They had been promoted 
almost entirely at long range, through literature and general 
publicity. It is doubtful whether one can fairly trace any 
particular set of characteristics in the local units of these or- 
ganizations that were studied. The impression conveyed was 
that they almost entirely took the color of their individual local 
leadership and had not very generally developed organizational 
traits. Possibly the Girl Scouts may be said to appeal to the 
idealism of professional and publicly active women of a some- 
what sophisticated and urbanized type, in contrast with the 
more domestic and esthetic type to whom the Camp Fire Girls 
movement is attractive. Possibly the former are rather more 
democratic in their local groups, and the latter more selective. 
Both organizations, however, clearly take their idealism more 
simply and objectively and less intensely and personally than 
the Young Women’s Christian Association. Both lack the 
tradition of ecclesiastical origins and express themselves rather 
in civic and social terms. It should not be forgotten, however, 
that this characteristic has sometimes particularly commended 
them to churches that are strongly desirous of keeping formal 
religion directly in their own hands. 


JUNIOR EXTENSION CLUBS 


Still a different version of secular idealism finds expression 
in the Junior Extension Clubs in agriculture and the house- 
hold arts promoted by the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
and cooperating extension departments of state educational de- 
partments. Their keynote is naturally vocational. They count 
on the character-building significance of associating boys and 
girls in purposeful activity of a youthful sort. The announced 


THE AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WORK 31 


objective is to develop good rural neighborhoods and good 
rural neighbors and citizens, but this result is rather taken for 
granted than striven for by specific technical means. Increas- 
ingly, however, the Junior Extension Club is developing an 
educational technique and appealing to socialized motive. Thus 
another vision of life in behalf of youth is reaching organized 
form. So far it has simply assumed the presence of the rural 
church in country communities and has not formally or con- 
sciously become related to it. To some extent, it is true, it 
draws on the church leadership, but the larger contacts of the 
Junior Extension Clubs have been with the rural school. 


EXTENT OF THE RURAL WORK 


The location of the territorially organized rural work of the 
Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations and 
of certain rural work of the Boy Scouts is shown by region, 
states and counties or comparable districts in the Appendix.® 
This is very far, however, from being an adequate geographi- 
cal statement, since four of the five agencies concerned find 
half or more of their rural work in scattered units not under 
close territorial organization. The rural Girl Scouts and Camp 
Fire Girls are seldom territorially organized, except incidentally 
around cities. Of the total number of local units of the agen- 
cies in the fifty-three counties which were studied, 46 per cent. 
were not in intensively organized territory.° The agencies, on 
the other hand, report the particular locations only for their 
larger territorial units, and none of them tell anything as to 
the degree of occupancy of their organized territory. 

For these reasons no attempt is made to give a complete 
geographical statement of the total rural work of the agencies. 
Too much of it is diffused in unorganized areas, and much 
organized territory was found to be so thinly occupied that to 
indicate it on a map (say, by coloring) would be to emphasize 
a fact of little real geographical significance. 

The fifty-three sample counties covered by the study included 


5 Appendix VII. 
6 Table V., p. 39. 


82 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


seven not within the intensively organized territory of any 
agency. All but one, however, furnished examples of diffused 
and sporadic work of one or more agencies. Those counted 
as organized were not organized from the standpoint of all 
the agencies working in them. The ways in which each was 
actually organized and the degree to which their communities 
are occupied is the theme of the next chapter. Its revelations 
of the variety of methods of occupancy and of the degrees of 
internal saturation in territory assumed to be occupied prove 
how much more one needs to know than the bare presence of 
an agency in a given territory. 

Since the agencies have neither entirely defined nor closely 
located their total rural work, any measurement of it involves 
a certain element of uncertainty. All the agencies, of course, 
count members, of whom probably about 330,375 live in places 
of 10,000 and less, Their distribution by agencies appears in 
the first column of Table II.’ 


TABLE II—PROPORTION OF EACH AGENCY’S “RURAL” * 
MEMBERSHIP INCLUDED IN THIS STUDY 


(53 Counties) 





Members 
Total U.S.A. Included in this Investigation 
Agency (Estimated) Number Per Cent. 
VW M.Ch wah e bee hear 30,375 7 7,035 23 
Boy Scouts taerk Gee eG 216,000 8,401 4 
WW GAS Se ea 33,000 6,832 20 
Csirl: Scouts i. 14 ae oe done 26,000 1,990 8 
Camp Fire Girls ............ 25,000 1,197 5 
Total ene 330,375 25,455 8 


* The term “rural” is used to include all places with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. 
t Members under 21 years of age. 


MEMBERS IN SAMPLE TERRITORY 


As shown in the second column of Table II, the study found 
25,455 young Americans enrolled in the membership of the five 


7 For the method of calculating these results, see Appendix IV., p. 240. 
It will be observed that relatively a much larger sample of the membership of 
the Young Men’s Christian Association and the Young Women’s Christian 
Association was secured than of the other agencies. Comparable data, how- 
ever, on a few points (for example, see p. 85) serve to confirm evidence 
drawn even from the smaller sample, while the relatively large number of 
cases involved was clearly sufficient to show trends. 


THE AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WORK 33 


national agencies investigated in the fifty-three counties studied. 
It also found 5,544 boys and girls enrolled in Junior Extension 
Clubs doing work in agriculture and the rural domestic arts.® 

How far does this go toward serving rural youth in these 
counties? The facts are shown comparatively for thirty-three 
counties in Table IV.° 

At the most favored age (years 14 and 15) the five agencies 
are reaching only about 10 per cent. of the total youth popula- 
tion of these counties, and less than 5 per cent. in the next most 
favored age (years 16 and 17). In the best counties the com- 
bined work includes only: 


about one-sixth of the population of 10 to 13 years of age 

about one-fourth of the population of 14 to 15 years of age 

about one-fifth of the population of 16 to 17 years of age 

about one-fourteenth of the population of 18 to 20 years of 
age 

about one-sixth of the total youth population of 10 to 20 
years of age. 


This tabulation does not, of course, measure the more per- 
vasive influence of the agencies nor the incidental but often 
recurrent ways in which they serve large populations besides 
members; but it does express the rather narrow limitations of 
their formal organizations of youth. 

In addition, the Junior Extension Clubs reach an average 
of about 8 per cent. of the total farm youth population in the 
counties where they exist, the highest percentage reached in a 
single county being about 16. 


WHAT THE SAMPLE PROVES 


The preceding paragraphs give the extent of the work for 
youth carried on in a representative sample of fifty-three coun- 
ties, in forty-six of which some of the agencies are territorially 
organized and in all but one of which there is sporadic and 
unorganized development of their work. Since the estimated 


8 Table III. 
i “as 


34 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


total of rural membership of the five agencies is less than one- 
fortieth of the total rural youth population of the nation (as 
defined earlier in the chapter) it is obvious that most of the 
country is not occupied to any such extent. 

The memberships of the five agencies in the counties studied 
constitute, however, nearly 8 per cent. of the estimated com- 
bined national membership of the same agencies in communi- 
ties of 10,000 population and less as shown in Table II, while 
the membership of the Junior Extension Clubs in the counties 
studied constitutes about 9 per cent. of the national member- 
ship of those clubs as reported by the Department of Agricul- 
ture. Thus the samples are relatively large and are amply 
sufficient to illustrate the prevailing range and average of the 
facts where the agencies are typically organized.*° 


SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 


It appears, then, that on the most liberal computation, at least 
as measured by formal membership, all the agencies combined 
reach only a few of the potential subjects of character-building 
activity. The fraction reached by any single agency is_trifling 
indeed, and the best record stops very far short of the ideal, 
frequently quoted in commendations of the work, namely, to 
reach ‘‘the last boy in the county.” 

The pervasive influence of this body of work, as already con- 
fessed, has not been measured. Its broad area of secondary 
results may well include some of its major values. 

How creditable it is to have reached even so small a propor- 
tion of rural youth through formal organization obviously de- 
pends upon such issues as: 


(1) What did the agencies undertake to do? 
(2) How long have they been at it? 
(3) Has there been net progress, and at what rate? 


(4) How has this progress, if any, compared with the re- 
sources available? 


10 For method of selecting the sample counties and discussion of the ade- 
quacy of the sample, see Appendix IV., p. 242. 


THE AGENCIES AND THEIR RURAL WORK 35 


The actual position of the agencies themselves, as it exists 
on the field, may be generalized as follows: The reaching of 
“the last boy in the county” is palpably only rhetoric. With 
present resources, average men cannot do much more than they 
are doing. The work as a whole is very recent and is still in 
the experimental stage. Except for a distinct slump following 
the World War, the rate of progress on the whole is not dis- 
couraging. The real function of the agencies is to cast into 
rural communities the leaven of greater interest in youth, to 
select available places for service, and where discrimination is 
necessary, to pick the more promising youth in the hope that 
they may furnish leadership and support for a larger work in 
the future. 

If the agencies have a good defense in such attitudes, two 
further questions are at least reasonable: 


(1) Should not so small and recent a work be very plastic, 
teachable and cooperative? Has it any warrant for great 
self-assurance or dogmatism? 

(2) If it is not in position now or at an early date really 
to undertake a general service to rural youth, and particu- 
larly if it is not in position to attempt any far-reaching 
equalization of privilege and opportunity as between the more 
and the less favored regions and classes in the country, should 
it not frankly say so to its supporting constituencies, and base 
its claims upon reasonable probabilities of achievement? 


CHAPTER I, Continued 
TABLES 


TABLE III—JUNIOR EXTENSION WORK * 
(19 Counties +) 


Number 
of Communi- Number of Number of 
County ties Organized Clubs Members 
Chmberiand Me). 9 cn eo 16 23 284 
Barnstable, lass.) a ke. ys os 28 287 
Vrorcester, sWias6. iss teas 17 22 175 
Hartrord, Conti, veereeue at 14 31 175 
Nobroes SN IMNY re ata are 14 35 613 
range “ING oe Sad sine bine s merne 15 31 290 
ee NEAT VAR a woe 12 31 240 
SNL esol. 

New Castle: Deland eet + 88 738 
Spattanpure, o..Car.chwuer ys iz 12 248 
Colbert Ata o ae eae eee 15 15 251 
PharlanjpiBveiin. sc aceon 11 11 235 
Fi ariord, Nid. ae yah ee vA 57 1,000 
Coshocton, Ohig icc. es eames 4 6 155 
Fairheld}) Ohio’ 4. Vinee see 5 9 see 
Wearandot; Ohio? Soci ve ee 28 179 
Noble: India as gee ae oka 7 22 325 
Weld) Colo. Wii Mula dane ws 40 292 
Walla, Walla; Washi. 2.24 4 12 60 

Total a sie Rane ee a 173 501 5,547 


* Junior Extension Work is a term used by the Government for Boys’ and Girls’ 
Agricultural Clubs. : : 
_ t Tabulable information secured from only nineteen of the fifty-three counties 
investigated. 


36 


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CHAPTER II 
HOW THE AGENCIES OPERATE 


As actually encountered in the fifty-three counties studied, 
character-building work for youth divides sharply into two 
phases: (1) that under the immediate and intensive supervision 
of a paid executive as representative of some of the national 
agencies concerned, and (2) that not under such supervision. 

The former generally represents work either undertaken at 
the initiative of the national agency as a result of its promo- 
tional policy or else work later brought under close adminis- 
trative direction on a territorial basis. 

The latter, while bearing the label of some national agency, 
usually originated locally, is without the intensive supervision 
of a paid representative of the agency, and is connected with 
it only through the long-distance relations necessary for recog- 
nition and regularity. Of the aggregate occupancies of com- 
munities by the agencies in the fifty-three counties studied, 46 
per cent. are in territory not now under intensive supervision 
by the occupying agency. ‘This territory includes about one- 
third of all organized groups. 

This very large fraction of the total work which the national 
agencies did not “go about” to do at all, but which came to 
them and goes on without their first-hand cultivation, causes 
surprise and invites explanation. 

Of course, all the agencies broadcast their influence through- 
out the nation, using both systematic and incidental publicity, 
in the effort to create and influence situations which they expect 
practically to profit by in the future. Being national in inten- 
tion, they cultivate America by far-flung and extensive proc- 
esses, with incidental results which they recognize as only minor 
services though of great intrinsic value. 


But, as in all such promotional processes, much seed falls by 
38 


HOW THE AGENCIES OPERATE 39 


the wayside, some of which springs up and grows, Literally 
stated, some individual or local group takes up with the idea of 
character-building work for boys and girls and starts an organi- 
zation in the home community. Next the persons interested 
either make some long-distance connection with the national 
agencies; or else they go ahead with their own version of such 
service. 

Permeation thus runs ahead of organization. The idea of 
organized character-building work for youth is much more 
widely spread than the ability of the agencies to cover the 
country promotionally and administratively. 


DIFFERENCES AMONG AGENCIES 


The differences among agencies in this respect are so ex- 
treme and striking as to challenge special attention. These 
differences are not quite exactly indicated by the number of 
communities now found with or without intensive supervision, 
since many organizations spontaneously originating have sub- 
sequently come under paid supervision. The present data, how- 
ever, exhibit the same contrast in another way, Table V show- 
ing the number of occupancies of incorporated communities in 
the fifty-three counties by each agency under intensive and 
without intensive supervision. 


TABLE V—TYPE OF SUPERVISION BY AGENCIES IN 225 
INCORPORATED PLACES 


(53 Counties) 
Number of Agency Units Organized 


Agency Intensively Non-intensively 
OU Bat ul pop Ne EID ROP Ree OP Rie ARE 96 2 
EPPMRO OUTS coe keels Pak Sele cats 41 59 
eerie, okies yl ls et le SLs 58 19 
eR CIN TEE ne Siac is 5 Ove oe a eae 0 45 
APT IDO CIES sak by xs Ben eats see 0 41 

oral Mee ek sa eee Ai oat 195 166 


This showing suggests that the Girl Scouts and the Camp 
Fire Girls have been least indebted to paid supervision for the 
spread of their rural work, and the Young Men’s Christian 


40 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Association most indebted, while the Boy Scouts have been less 
indebted to supervision than has the Young Women’s Christian 
Association. 

The present chapter deals with both phases of extension, as 
above distinguished. The first section deals with the present 
territorial organization, which may or may not have resulted 
from previous permeation by the agencies involved. The 
second section deals with local communities and studies all the 
work now found in them, whether territorially organized or 
not from the standpoint of any given agency. The total con- 
stitutes a summary of close-up studies of the attempt of the 
agencies to insert themselves into rural civilization, and its 
results measured in terms of organization. 


LOCAL TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION 


As previously stated, local territorial organization, either 
officially promoted or recognized, is found in forty-six of the 
fifty-three counties investigated. All but one have sporadic 
local units, but seven counties are without any national agency 
promoting rural character-building work on a county or com- 
parable territorial basis. 


FORMS OF ORGANIZATION 


The county or some comparable district, sometimes larger 
and sometimes smaller, is usually the primary unit of super- 
vision. Other methods of supervision are, however, employed; 
such as (1) the formal partnership of some city organization 
with a neighboring rural territorial organization; (2) the in- 
cidental but continuous extension of city supervisory functions 
to adjoining rural populations; and (3) special and temporary 
forms of supervision by state or larger district officials. The 
distribution of these types of organization appears in Table VI. 

It is necessary to recognize intensive supervision under all 
these aspects in order to do justice to the actual rural work of 
the agencies. In the enumeration, the report has been generous 
as to what constitutes such supervision in any given case, 


HOW THE AGENCIES OPERATE 41 


TABLE VI—TYPE OF INTENSIVE SUPERVISION BY AGENCIES 
IN ORGANIZED AREAS 


Type of Organization 


Ss 2 
on 4 a) dS 3 x Le 
S:3 ees sss S85 
a3 Ss SMH era ee ae Henne opr 
y sS2 32 sh £ StS B38 
gency ropes as S 8:5 = 3 ee 
BG ec GRICg) Mey eal oy Se 
Pee eres to etek 31 28 rs 0 0 0 
RAOUL ROTTS Oe oy a rsa’ 25 13 0 7 5 0 
SPMD Be Ore Pope 17 12 1 1 2 1 
MILL SCOUTS | ¢ wince 3:30’ 6 0 0 1 5 0 
Federations or Coun- 
cils of Churches ... 5 0 0 1 2 z 
Councils of Religious 
Education or Sun- 
day School Associa- 
TIOLIS Gi a ie dee eo 4 3 0 1 0 0 
PEOES aie dyin be Ua 88 56 4 11 14 3 


FREQUENCY AND DISTRIBUTION OF TYPES OF ORGANIZATION 


The study deals in special detail with seventy-seven terri- 
torially organized units for intensive supervision of four 
national agencies—fifty-four serving boys and men and twenty- 
three serving girls and women. They are divided among the 
major agencies as shown in Table VII. 


TABLE VII—NUMBER PER COUNTY OF THE FOUR AGENCIES 
HAVING COUNTY ORGANIZATION 


(45 Counties) 


Number of Agencies 


a> > 

4S ‘ NX 
88 Seat g © 2 ati, aR eae 
SS = 3 = hey TS) = S, <= = 
SR ah rine hl bates BEA TR Pet, Uk ER MAN ES 
1 22 14 4 3 1 18 4 Ze 
2 16 10 12 9 1 22 10 32 
3 5 5 5 3 2 10 5 15 
4 2 2 2 2 Dhak 4 g 
Total. .45 31 23 17 6 54 23 77 


42 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Five Councils of Churches and four county Sunday School 
Associations or Councils of Religious Education were also 
studied, and two counties each had two distinct territorial 
organizations of the same agency. This accounts for the 
eighty-eight units classified in the previous table. No terri- 
torial organization of the Camp Fire Girls in rural territory 
was encountered in the fifty-three counties. 

With a single exception, the mark of intensive supervision 
was the presence of a paid executive or other special super- 
visor, who in all but two cases gave full time to the work. 
As between the agencies, while the county unit predominates in 
all, the following differences were observed: the Young Men’s 
Christian Association almost always has a county unit, while 
the Boy Scouts show almost as many cases of distinct or of 
incidental city expansion as of county units. The Young 
Women’s Christian Association distributes its types of organi- 
zation through all of the methods of geographical occupancy. 

In twenty-two of the counties studied only one national 
organization was present, while twenty-three had two or more, 
thus affording illuminating opportunity for the study of rela- 
tionships between agencies in the same field. 


ORIGINS OF COUNTY ORGANIZATION 


Nearly two-thirds of the county or comparable district or- 
ganizations were said locally to have originated in national 
promotional activities, and in more than 80 per cent. of these 
cases such activities appeared to have been virtually the sole 
originating factor.* This is to say, the communities studied 
had not been conscious of any general demand in advance and 
looked upon the agencies as having come in from outside; 
although there may have been and doubtless often were solici- 
tations from individuals asking them to enter the field. 

The next most important factor was the effort to conserve 
work which had previously grown up spontaneously or with 
only indirect stimulation. In other words, it was organization 
stepping in to conserve the results of permeation. More than 


1 Table IX. 


HOW THE AGENCIES OPERATE 43 


for any other agency, the territory organized intensively by 
the Boy Scouts has been that in which independent troops had 
already developed to a large degree.” 

The Young Women’s Christian Association, on the other 
hand, shows distinct traces of the philanthropic motive in the 
choice of territory. It has often gone where there was con- 
spicuous need but no previous demand. With the Young Men’s 
Christian Association territorial organization has been almost 
entirely a matter of deliberate expansion. These differences 
are strikingly shown in Table X. 

In cases where a local invitation to a national agency was 
the originating influence in county organization it is of great 
interest to ask who in particular undertook to act in behalf of 
the county. The cases in evidence are too few for statistical 
exactness. The initiative, however, appears most frequently 
to have been undertaken by some one previously active in the 
work elsewhere. Next in frequency comes the initiative of a 
Rotary or similar club, one located, for example, in a county 
seat whose national overhead organization has a recognized 
department of boys’ work. This has been particularly true in 
relation to the Boy Scouts. War Work Councils appear as the 
originating factor in a number of cases, and colleges in others. 
In a few cases a county was the home of a national or state 
official of one of the agencies, who in these cases took the 
first step. 

In but one case—that of a federation of women’s clubs—did 
an existing county organization, as such, act to bring another 
agency into the county. 


METHODS AND DEGREE OF LOCAL COOPERATION 


Upon careful investigation, the degree of consultation with 
local agencies prior to organization was judged adequate in not 


2In 1923 the Boy Scouts had a total of 13,499 troops “under council” 
that is to say, under intensive supervision, and 6,655 troops not under coun- 
cil. Of the former, however, 677 did not enjoy paid supervision (Thirteenth 
Annual Report, p. 150). No separate report is made for rural troops. The 
Councils, however, are primarily located in cities. Probably half or more of 
the rural troops, therefore, are not under council, which shows that their 
origin was generally not intensively promoted. 


44 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


more than half of the cases studied.* The initial local demand 
was more often slight than pronounced; * and public approval 
at the time of organization generally not decisive.’ Frequently, 
even the local leaders of independent units of work of the very 
agencies themselves did not welcome its more intensive organi- 
zation under a paid executive, and sometimes their opposition 
was intense and pronounced. 

In fourteen cases more or less extensive but apparently ac- 
curate surveys were made prior to territorial organization. 
These surveys necessarily showed what was demonstrated in 
the first chapter; namely, that relatively few ycung people are 
reached by all the agencies combined. What they often failed 
to yield was any reasonable criterion of occupancy or direct 
evidence as to the practical desirability of additional organi- 
zation. 

Few territorial organizations received initial financial assist- 
ance from the outside—beyond the salary and expenses of the 
temporary organizer. Financially speaking, they had to find 
local backing before they started in order to start at all. In 
that sense, in virtually all cases, organization had to depend 
upon genuine local support. The theoretical question, whether 
it is better to make a start if one can, even with limited back- 
ing, expecting to “sell” the community as a whole by means of 
a going program, or to “sell” it more adequately in advance, 
does not appear to be settled by the data. Certainly many com- 
munities do not feel that they were well “sold” in advance, and 
have come later to resent it. 


RECENCY OF THE WORK AS A WHOLE 


Three-fourths of all the agencies in the counties studied were 
organized not earlier than the last year of the World War.® 
The median age is between four and five years, a fact which 
suggests obvious caution to any inclination to judge the work 
as a finished product. 





8 Table X. 

4 Table XI, 
5 Table XII. 
® Table XIII. 


HOW THE AGENCIES OPERATE 45 


ORGANIZATION IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES 


The study now turns to organization in local communities 
as found in the fifty-three counties investigated, recalling that 
46 per cent. of the time these local communities are outside of 
the area of intensive territorial supervision of the particular 
agencies involved. 


THE OCCUPANCY OF INCORPORATED PLACES 


Of the 385 incorporated places in the fifty-three counties 
studied, 225, or 58.4 per cent., have one or more organized 
units of the five national agencies located in them. 

The total number of occupancies in the 225 incorporated 
places in which any agency was present was 361, an average 
of 1.6 per occupied place. If no place had had more than one 
agency, only 6 per cent. would have been without any; but so 
many had more than one that 42 per cent. were actually without 
any at all. These facts measure the duplication of agencies, 
which, as will later be shown, exists chiefly in the larger places. 


TABLE VIII—DEGREE OF OCCUPANCY BY EACH AGENCY OF 
PLACES HAVING FEWER THAN 10,000 INHABITANTS 
(53 Counties) 


Per Cent. of Agency's Units 
In Incorpo- 


Number of In Total rated Places 
Agency Umts Number of Occupied by 
in Incorpo- Incorporated One or More 
Agency vated Places Places * Agency * 
PNA igh aia ee ad 08 25.4 43.5 
Pee CLES” wv c sl colt. ves 100 26.0 44.5 
COA ee ny as Mae ss hfe ris 20.0 34.2 
CrtCOUEs a ela el iw 45 11.7 20.0 
Camp Fire Girls ........ 41 10.6 18.2 


* The total number of incorporated eae in the 53 counties is 385; the number 
occupied by one or more agency is 225, 


The number of local organizations of each agency which 
make up the 361 aggregate occupancies in 225 incorporated 
places is shown in the first column of Table VIII. The second 
column shows what per cent. of the 385 incorporated places 


46 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


in the fifty-three counties is occupied by each agency, while the 
third column shows in what per cent. of the 225 occupied places 


each agency is found. 


OCCUPANCY OF NON-INCORPORATED PLACES 


Of the 415 communities occupied 225, or 54.2 per cent., were 
incorporated, and 190, or 45.8 per cent., non-incorporated. 
The non-incorporated are especially frequent in the vicinity of 
cities where they out-number the incorporated places occupied. 
In other words, such places are primarily suburban rather than 
rural. Thirty-two per cent. of the non-incorporated places, 
however, are located in rural counties and appear to be essen- 
tially open-country communities.’ 


TOTAL OCCUPANCY OF COMMUNITIES 


In the grand total of 415 occupied places an aggregate of 
619 occupancies by the five national agencies were included, of 
which 23 per cent. are open-country places. Of these latter, 
however, more than half are so under the shadow of cities that 
they must be classified as at least semi-suburban. 

The distribution of these occupancies between the agencies 
appears in Table IX. 


TABLE IX—NUMBER OF INCORPORATED AND NON-INCOR- 
PORATED PLACES OCCUPIED BY THE AGENCIES 


(53 Counties) 


Agency Units in Places 


Agency Incorporated Non-incorporated Total 
VM. Ag cle t se ite ie eR 98 69 167 
Boy. ‘Scouts 2443 ta eee es 100 79 179 
VW CAR a Gee eae eee 77 71 148 
Girl. Sdouigu/se) Vee ee eee: 45 19 64 
Camp : Fire (sities eet ccc sites 41 20 61 

SUMMARY 


Territory intensively organized by the agencies covers little 
of the area of the nation and includes but few of its total 





7 Table XV. 


HOW THE AGENCIES OPERATE AT 


number of young people. In typical areas organized by one 
or more agencies, however, slightly more than one-half of all 
communities of any size are occupied by local units of some 
agency, either as the result of permeation or of deliberate pro- 
motion. Whether and how far their distribution is equitable 
is the theme of the next chapter. 


SUGGESTED QUESTIONS 


Of more general questions which suggest themselves the 
most natural is: What of the unoccupied communities? Con- 
sidering the two methods by which agencies have spread in 
the rural field, namely, by permeation and by deliberate or- 
ganization, and their limited development by both combined, 
one is led to ask: 


(1) Which method is likely to get farthest and to go fast- 
est in the future? 

It is not known how exactly the counties studied are repre- 
sentative of the total occupied territory of the nation in 
respect to the origins of the work. What is known is that 
90 per cent. of Boy Scout troops in towns of 1,000 popula- 
tion and less were not “under council” in 1922; that the 
Young Women’s Christian Association reports as many 
members of detached Girl Reserve groups as it has in all 
groups in territory formally organized by the town and 
country department; and that most of the rural work of the 
Girl Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls has no intensive super- 
vision. It is safe to conclude, therefore, that, so far, per- 
meation has been a more important principle of extension 
than deliberate organization. 

So far as communities of less than 2,500 population are 
concerned (other than suburbs) it is almost certain that the 
unpromoted work of the agencies has hitherto been more 
important than all the promoted work. 

(2) Have the agencies been giving proper attention to 
methods of permeation coming short of intensive organiza- 
tion and supervision, and to their approach to local com- 
munities ? 

It will take a very long time at best to get around to the 
organization of all rural communities under national auspices 
even if there were no losses and no principle of diminishing 
returns involved. Might not more local communities be 


48 


HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


brought to organize voluntarily if the idea of service for boys 
and girls were still more generally broadcast throughout the 
nation, and if such service (rather than strict conformity to 
a given method) were made the test of value? 

(3) The question arises whether the two methods get 
somewhat comparable results. What does close organization 
furnish which permeation by sporadic units does not? Are 
the greater advantages of the former policy such that the 
major stress should be laid upon it, even if in consequence 
many communities are left unoccupied? 


CHAPTER II, Continued 


TABLES 


TABLE X—ORIGINS OF 62 COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS OF 
THREE AGENCIES 


Originating Influence 


— 
vss S38 be SBS 
p OP 8 = Sos Siw Yee 
Agency oe ae Ho) ere Ne Sie 
& Ls © = o) w 

YMCA. QAR Ry sal SS SN 

Factor present ...... 20 0 0 1 1 Ze 

Single. factor. .4.<%.. 20 0 0 1 0 Zl 

Contributing factor . 0 0 0 0 1 i 
Boy Scouts 

Factor present ...... 9 10 1 4 0 24 

piwie Viactor sss 5's 4 5 1 0 0 10 

Contributing factor . 5 5 0 4 0 14 

W.C.A. 

Factor present ...... 8 3 0 4 1 16 

single factor ......; 8 Z 0 2 1 13 

Contributing factor . 0 1 0 2 0 3 
Totals 

Factor present ...... <7) 13 1 9 2 62 

Dine factor. si.) as 32 hi 1 3 1 44 

Contributing factor . 5 6 0 6 1 18 


* Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE XI—AMOUNT OF CONSULTATION PRECEDING 27 
COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


i Number Amount of Consultation 
Agency of Cases Full Partial 
RNY Eh UsN chg ain de at OAM vse ont ea 14 6 8 
PEO SCOULO abe hci ahl Sty Get ot, 6 2 4 
ETE Pe Seta a ORO ONIN flee Bel iar 7 6 1 
THEE dts am at Nie 27 14 13 


*Includes comparable district organizations. 
49 


50 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE XII—CHARACTER OF SPECIFIC DEMAND FOR 28 
COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Number Character of Specific. Demand 


Agency of Cases Slight Strong 
nde.) BOF. Vine Wer P ree rrr ak AL: 11 7 4 
Boy couts fi ash pes ces ieee 8 5 3 
2 (4), A ell ee) Oe aan Arye 9 5 4 

Total dyiss sae che vos Cee 28 17 11 


Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE XIII—DEGREE OF PUBLIC APPROVAL OF 39 COUNTY * 
ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Number Degree of Public Approval 

Agency of Cases Strong Medium W eak 
PY ATCA ee Susans he eee 20 rs 4 9 
BOY OCOUIS Es eer eeie ees 9 6 1 Z 
EW GE tcata ches 10 1 fd 7 
TOR cad uke a ee ee 39 14 7 18 


Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE XIV—AGE OF 66 COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS OF 
THREE AGENCIES 


Date of Estab- 


Number lishment of Oldest Median 
Agency of Cases Organization Studied Age 
Nal CoA Aen eee tee 31 1901 7 years 
Boy Scoutsiiou i. eee eae 21 1913 ae 
ACW CAA a ae rane 14 1910 hale 


“Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE XV—NUMBER OF PLACES OCCUPIED BY ANY OF THE 
AGENCIES IN COUNTIES CLASSIFIED BY CONCENTRA- 
TION OF POPULATION 


(53 Counties) 


Type_of Population Places Occupied 
Distribution Incorporated Non-tncorporated Total 
Concentrated counties (urban) .... 108 130 238 
Non-concentrated counties (rural). 117 60 177 


POtALS twee menete hae aa areata 225 190 415 


CHAPTER III 
EFFECT OF STARTING WITH TOWNS AND CITIES 


The rural work of the national character-building agencies is 
not located in the most typically rural areas in proportion to 
the distribution of population as between these areas and others 
less distinctively rural. 

Of the total population of the United States living in places 
of 10,000 and under, over 72 per cent. lives outside of incor- 
porated places of even as much as 500 population. In the 
twenty-nine most distinctively rural counties, of the fifty-three 
studied, slightly over two-thirds of the population live outside 
of incorporated places of 500 population and over. Even these 
counties are thus shown not to be typically rural;* while the 
other twenty-four either include or adjoin cities or other heavy 
concentration of population, and thus depart radically from the 
ordinary rural type. 

In view of the history and major interests of the national 
agencies, as already discovered, to start with towns and cities 
was a perfectly natural and perhaps an inevitable course,’ and 
might even have proved strategic from the standpoint of the 
rural work. Centers exist to start from. The basic assump- 
tion of the work has always been that it shall be manned and 
supported locally. Larger places naturally have the greater 
capacity to do these things for themselves, and are more likely 
to be willing to undertake them. 

To these natural tendencies, however, is to be added the fact 
that some of the agencies have never deliberately undertaken 
to do rural work. Their ideas and methods have permeated 
rural communities to some extent and they have recognized 

1 Table XIX. 
2 The city department of the Young Men’s Christian Association includes 


77 per cent. of the organization’s present work and large segments of the 
work of other departments are urban. 


52 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


sporadic units as locally organized. But they have never set 
before their eyes a mental picture of the country boy and girl, 
largely living in farm homes, as a goal of their efforts, to be 
sought by strong and consistent promotional policies. On the 
contrary, their policies have fallen in with a natural tendency 
to stay near the city, and they have made no adequate attempt 
to correct this tendency in the interest of equal opportunity for 
country children. Even the organizations which have most 
clearly visualized rural youth as specific objects of endeavor 
have been still more conscious of their town cousins. 


UNEQUAL DIFFUSION OF ORGANIZATION 


The facts bearing upon this situation, as discovered in the 
fifty-three counties studied, are as follows: 

(1) In the occupied counties (which, as seen above, are not 
typically rural), the more radically rural population is not 
served proportionately to its numbers. Tested by number of 
organized communities this statement appears at first not to 
be true. In the fifty-three counties 57 per cent. of the popu- 
lation located outside of places of 10,000 and over lives in the 
open country or in places of 500 population or less. This 57 
per cent. of population is served by 53 per cent. of the organi- 
zations—a relatively slight disadvantage. But, as will be 
demonstrated in a later paragraph, this seeming equality is 
largely due to the service of suburban populations living in 
unincorporated, but by no means rural, places adjacent to cities. 
In the twenty-nine predominantly rural counties, while nearly 
two-thirds of the population is radically rural, only a little more 
than one-third of the organizations are found to be operating ® 
for this population. 

(2) The smaller incorporated places are relatively neglected. 
The proportion of incorporated places which are occupied by 
the agencies ranges from 30.3 per cent. for places of less than 
500 population to 85.2 per cent. for places of 2,500 to 5,000 
population—the trend being strongly to the occupancy of the 
larger places. Only three out of ten communities of less than 


8 Tables XV, XVIII and XIX. 


EFFECT OF STARTING WITH TOWNS AND CITIES 58 


500 population are occupied compared with eight out of ten 
in communities of 2,500 to 10,000. These figures are shown 
in greater detail in Table XVI. 


TABLE XVI—SIZE OF INCORPORATED PLACES HAVING 
FEWER THAN 10,000 INHABITANTS OCCUPIED BY ANY 
OF THE AGENCIES 


(53 Counties) 
Total Number 


Size of Incorp. of Incorp. Places Occupied 
Place Places Number Per Cent. 
RAE Ry meee che ee ye Us eu che 99 30 30.3 
DINIE LO CONS Pea year ks cay arn thee ay 107 66 61.7 
PMMA E Cia SOON Coin: gone Wk cians we 94 61 64.9 
FEO SO out es sla sins eek 54 46 85.2 
AMI EGELUANII A, WAL ge danele a bas 31 Ze 71.0 
TISTEN bald) a ie Ream a eA 385 225 58.4 


Of the agencies, the Young Women’s Christian Association 
and the Camp Fire Girls show the greatest affinity for places 
of less than 1,000 population and the Girl Scouts the least.* 

The smaller places get better attention in rural counties and 
fare worse in the vicinity of cities.° 

(3) Work in suburbs is relatively overdone. Twenty-four 
out of the fifty-three counties studied have concentrated popu- 
lations, chiefly about cities.° In these counties, about six out 
of every ten occupied communities are definitely suburban. 
Where the choice existed, the agencies have conspicuously not 
chosen to turn their main attention to strictly rural communi- 
ties. Within strictly metropolitan areas no blame need attach 
to this decision. The suburban phase of work is fruitful and 
important, as evidenced by the relatively large proportion of 
incorporated American communities which belong to this class.‘ 

Again, those types of agriculture that produce food for im- 
mediate consumption in cities have created large farming popu- 
lations living on small acreages in their near vicinities. This 
suburban farming population offers a genuine though peculiar 

4Table XX. 

5 Table XXI. 


6 Table XXII. 
* Table XXIII. 


54 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


field for rural service, which, however, should be kept distinct 
in thought, plans and statistical accounting from the ordinary 
rural work of the agencies. It seems particularly unfair to 
lead supporters primarily to visualize rural community service 
when so much of the work is under the shadow of cities and 
with people whose lives are largely modified by such proximity. 

(4) The least needy places, on the whole, are most fre- 
quently organized. The larger places, to which the agencies 
so strongly tend, are already more highly developed and better 
provided with community resources, though the number and 
variety of social agencies do not fully keep pace with increase 
of population.*® 

Other social agencies ministering to youth are themselves 
more numerous and adequate in the very communities where 
the character-building agencies for youth are most frequent 
and successful. That is to say, the national agencies function 
chiefly where it is easiest for them and not where they are most 
needed. To a very considerable extent the town church and 
the small city church already have specific subsidiary organi- 
zations to meet the needs of the various age and sex groups to 
which they especially appeal, as is shown by Table XVII. 


TABLE XVII—COMPARATIVE FREQUENCY OF SPECIFIED 
SUBSIDIARY CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS IN VARIOUS 
TYPES OF RURAL AND SMALL CITY COMMUNITIES 


Churches in 


Open Small 
Organization Country Village Town City 
% % 0 0 
Some Subsidiary Organizations be- 
sides Sunday School «ices ears t 52 79 93 100 
Women’s ‘Organization .).2. 5.2.74. 42 70 87 100 
More than one Women’s Organiza- 
HOM Gs Pe he ee an eee eke ras 17 21 44 90 
Mixed-sex Organizations (usually 
Youne People’s jiasen coe, w ae 25 47 67 66 
More than one Mixed-sex Organi- 
zation Psi Vere Canes Cate an en 5 14 37 0 
Men's Organization i) ss. ill ae 2 5* 10 55 
Boys’ Oreanizationv wee. 1 6 * 15 * 11 
Girls’; Organization a vises. Pele 6 8 * 20 33 


* Less than 1 per cent. have more than one. 


8 Tables XXIV and XXV. 


EFFECT OF STARTING WITH TOWNS AND CITIES 55 


In suburban territory particularly—other than in the poorest 
industrial suburbs where the agencies may still find large op- 
portunity for service—social overorganization is a recognized 
phenomenon. Considering the available resources of the adja- 
cent city, the polite suburbs undoubtedly present the greatest 
wealth of social privilege as well as the largest number of com- 
petitive appeals to its constructive forces.® 

(5) Duplication and rivalry of agencies is greater in the 
larger places and particularly near cities. Of the 225 incor- 
porated places occupied, one hundred have but one agency each, 
and places of less than 500 population rarely have more than 
one. Duplicatory occupancy increases directly as the size of 
the community, two agencies occurring twice as often as one in 
places of 2,500 to 5,000 population, and four times as often 
as one in places of 5,000 to 10,000 population.*® 

Duplicatory occupancy to the extent of three or four 
agencies per community is relatively much more frequent in 
the vicinity of cities. Half of all incorporated places in rural 
counties have only one agency, while 60 per cent. in counties 
surrounding cities have more than one.** 

Twenty-eight per cent. of the duplicatory agencies are poten- 
tially competitive; that is to say, they involve two or more boys’ 
or two or more girls’ organizations in the same community. 
Such a situation, in rural communities, usually means rivalry 
for members, leadership or financial support, or for all three. 
The frequency of competition increases with the size of the 
community and reaches an average of one-third in the vicinity 
of cities. Both duplication and competition are especially acute 
in places of 2,500 population and over.” 

(6) Intensive supervision is not favorable to the wide dif- 
fusion of local organization. Some of the occupied communi- 
ties are under intensive supervision, others not. This makes 
it possible to compare‘the two with a view to discovering the 
effects of supervision. The greater control of organization 
implied in intensive supervision has not made for the spread of 

2 Douglass, The Suburban Trend (Century Co.), pp. 185 f. and 197-198. 

10 Table XXIV. 


11 Table XXVI. 
12 Tables XXIV and XXVII. 


56 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


the work to smaller communities. Rather it tends definitely 
to the occupancy of larger places.** A volunteer may start a 
Scout troop or other boys’ or girls’ organization where it will 
not occur to a paid worker to go, and such work can apparently 
maintain itself where supervision does not easily reach.** The 
paid executive has to think of convenience of communication ; 
of adequate local leadership; of developing financial resources. 
He also thinks of numbers; of making a good showing. Con- 
sequently, other things being equal, he naturally cultivates the 
larger places. 


SUMMARY 


Perhaps the most effective way to express the actual pro- 
portions of the work of the town and country departments and 
the parallel work of the other agencies would be to print the 
word “town” in very large capitals and the word “country” in 
very small letters. It would be still more accurate to describe 
this field as currently occupied by the agencies as “the sub- 
urban, town and country field.””. There should undoubtedly be 
suburban and town aspects of character-building work for 
youth. Perhaps the term “rural’’ should be abandoned as ap- 
plied to the present work, since the proportion which is rural 
in any radical sense is relatively small. 

Moreover, the claim of territorial occupancy is extremely 
misleading. The typical organized county is not occupied 
solidly. There are decided gaps in organization of the larger 
places as well as vast empty stretches among the smaller ones. 


FURTHER PROBLEMS 


Carrying forward problems sensed in previous chapters, one 
must ask again: 


(1) How far could permeation be made to reach into 
totally unoccupied communities if it were energetically pro- 
ear means coming short of intensive resident super- 
vision! 


13 Table XXVIII. 
14 Table XXIX. 


EFFECT OF STARTING WITH TOWNS AND CITIES 57 


(2) Can the multitude of very small places ever hope to be 
reached by organization? Must they not depend permanently 
upon permeation? 

(3) Do the present towns and rural cities reach out nor- 
mally into the open country? Might they not at least produce 
organization in rural neighborhoods which are part of the 
larger communities of which they are centers? 

(4) Has national administration ever fairly faced the 
problem of the very small and open-country communities? 

(5) In view of the large number of unoccupied communi- 
ties in the best developed of counties, and the very unequal 
diffusion of the work, what shall one feel and say about the 
duplication and rivalry in organization which exist in other 
places? 


CuHaptTer III, Continued 


TABLES 


TABLE XVIII—DISTRIBUTION OF THE RURAL AND SMALL 
CITY POPULATION IN THE 53 COUNTIES COMPARED 
WITH ITS DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES 


United States 53 Counties 

Population Population 

Type of Place No. No. Jo No. No. % 
Farm population in places 

(mnder A2,000 od ae eta antes 31,358,640 51.4 735,735 32.4 

* Other open country ...... 12,888,342 21.2 558,220 24.6 

Incorporated places from 

TOO) AROSE OU Cea orcas 3,450 2,447,626 4.0 178 122,814 5.4 

Ty; WOOT 2,000) kia c ae 3,028 4,711,409 7.7 148 227,086 10.0 

£2, DUONTO "D000 Fane net cna 1,320 4,593,953 7.5 85 295,628 13.0 

2 5.000816 10,000 Pieters 721 4,997,794 82 47 328,162 14.6 

Distal Cites ona wean eames 60,997,764 100.0 2,267,645 100.0 


e Logludes. all incorporated places of less than 500 of which there are 6,427 accord- 
me to ap Walter Thompson, Distribution of Population. 
iE Walter oe 
3 Fourteenth U. S. Census, 


TABLE XIX—DISTRIBUTION OF THE RURAL AND SMALL 
CITY POPULATION IN 29 COUNTIES HAVING NON-CON- 
CENTRATED POPULATIONS COMPARED WITH ITS DIS- 
TRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES 





United States 29 Counties 
Population Population 
Type of Place Number Per Cent. Number Per Cent. 
Farm population in places 
tinder (2,500 Ua. peee 31,358,640 51.4 357,973 44.8 
* Other open country ..... 12,888,342 Zhe 145,812 18.2 
Incorporated places from 
SOO. 7 OU wen eos 2,447,626 40 51,554 6.4 
1,000 £052, 300 ay ee aie 4,711,409 7.7 78,389 9.8 
2,500 to 5,000 .......... 4,593,953 7.5 97,696 12.2 
5, 000 to 10, O00 pCa cues 4, 997, 594 8.2 68,627 8.6 
BOCAS eae ie ae ee 60,997,764 100.0 800,051 100.0 


* Includes all incorporated places of less than 500 of which there are 6,427 accord- 
ing to J. Walter Thompson, Distribution ef Population. 


59 


TABLES 


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60 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE XXI—PROPORTION OF PLACES OF VARYING SIZE 
OCCUPIED BY ANY OF THE AGENCIES IN COUNTIES 
CLASSIFIED BY CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION 


(53 Counties) 


Population 
Concentrated Non-Concentrated 
Size of (Urban) (Rural) 
Incorp. Place 0 % 
Under S00 eeu ee ee eae 23.6 38.7 
BOO tG  TO00 ey tates cae alo ea ots te a 59.5 63.1 
1.000 ‘to ZAQ0 oo od Pie a eee wees 60.5 VS es 
Sy MNES Ate asate os cbyides t5c te lag ela 85.6 84.6 
5,000 ito LQh000 ke 1 ieee arse ee eee 66.7 80.0 
Total (a ais cae ee eee a 54.3 62.9 


TABLE XXII—DISTRIBUTION OF THE POPULATION IN COUN- 
TIES CLASSIFIED BY CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION 


(53 Counties) 


Counties Number Counties Number 
Concentrated (Urban) ..... 24 Not concentrated (Rural) . 29 
Aroutd cities. esate 16 Diftused © g9i0.35 fee 25 
Large i aoc aoe tees ak 11 Unified by centers ..... 13 
Small ke obi eed cae 5 Not unified by centers . iZ 
Around ‘mining. sou. ee 2 Defined physiographically. 4 
Arotind \water is: < wives. 6 
(irrigation) 


TABLE XXIII—DISTRIBUTION BY SIZE OF THE INCORPO- 
RATED PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES SUBURBAN 
TO CITIES OF 100,000 POPULATION AND OVER 


Total Number 


Size of of Incorp. Suburban Places 

Incorp. Places Places Number Per Cent. 
SOD to 1d, 000 eee ae eaten 3,450 165 5 
L000 toc: 2500 ee a ae 3,028 324 11 
2,500 ito 5 ODO Fe a or eee 1,320 216 15 
5.000 to 10 D000 ates i. 721 152 21 
10,000! ta-25:000 ai she eee 459 102 a 


Zorn) to LO0D00 Sich 25 Seats as 219 66 30 


TABLES 61 


TABLE XXIV—NUMBER OF INCORPORATED PLACES OF 
VARYING SIZE HAVING SPECIFIED NUMBER OF 


AGENCIES 
(53 Counties) 
Size of Total Places Agencies per Place 
Incorp. Place Occupied One Two Three Four 
MONGREL OUUN fake sae oe 85 29 26 a 0 0 
TNA E Ley LOU e ae cd oP kak 63 36 23 4 0 
WAY DS Ca GP-2 0) 0 UREN era aa pees 64 24 30 9 1 
Be IO oes tis aaa anid 47 11 21 13 Z 
tO LU. OUU) ne. pw ns ae 2 13 4 2 
ROGGE ts ed veo sas 225 100 90 30 5 


TABLE XXV—AVERAGE NUMBER OF “OTHER SOCIAL AGEN- 
CIES” IN SUBURBAN AND NON-SUBURBAN PLACES OF 
VARYING SIZE 


(53 Counties) 


Size of Average Number of Social Agencies 

Incorp. Place Non-Suburban Suburban 
RM) witiats eo Oe ale s!b hiGld, wid le atche 7 5 
Peary UO atts iene elaly he ae Ve 8 
PS RTEY Se OU) tas ate cist in! aka! dah ttn wie 13 13 
OSA Cha oe 8 ONS GT el ne a em Ea 25 oa 
PENALISED acs Bhi. hanes bes of 31 


TABLE XXVI—DISTRIBUTION OF PLACES IN COUNTIES WITH 
CONCENTRATED AND NON-CONCENTRATED POPULA- 
TIONS HAVING SPECIFIED NUMBER OF AGENCIES 


Total Agencies per Community 
Places One Two Three Four 
Counties Occupied No. % No. % No. % No. % 


With Concentrated 

Populations (Urban) 109 43 39.4 44 40.4 19 17.4 SAIN FM | 
ith Non-Concen- 

trated Populations 

Mitral yeu Cl sc ak 116 57 49.1 46 39.7 Leo PAR Be 


Rta tae ania ee 25 100 445 90 400 30 133 5 22 


62 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE XXVII—NUMBER OF INCORPORATED PLACES OF 
VARYING SIZE HAVING COMPETITIVE AND NON-COM- 
PETITIVE UNITS OF THE AGENCIES 

(53 Counties) 
Number of Agencies per Place 


Size of Incorp. Place One Boys’ 
One One and One 
Non-Competitive Places Boys’ Girls’ Girls’ Total 
Under, 500 | Gots aee cs set oee ae 13 i) 3 29 
Concentrated Counties ....... 3 8 we 13 
Non-Concentrated Counties .. 10 5 1 16 
SOO tera RO w be eugene kee ae eee 27 9 18 54 
Concentrated Counties ....... 10 4 8 22 
Non-Concentrated Counties .. 17 5 10 Ky 
EODO3TO 72,000 mun or oets kepesae te 18 6 20 44 
Concentrated Counties ....... 8 4 10 Ze 
Non-Concentrated Counties .. 10 2 10 22 
Oo0Ul 1b -O.UU0 sae tca gee cats 8 3 12 23 
Concentrated Counties ....... 4 0 6 10 
Non-Concentrated Counties .. 4 3 6 13 
5 000 46° 10 000 ae eee ee 3 0 9 12 
Concentrated Counties ....... 2 0 3 5 
Non-Concentrated Counties .. 1 0 6 7 
COIS Are ete eee 69 31 62 162 
Concentrated Counties 
Urban) waeieeees Dept eeeeelt 27 16 29 72 
Non-Concentrated Counties 
CRttral ci; eaeinecere van eee 42 15 33 90 
3 s 3 
S S 3 
: w | VRS oR a ee 
Competitive Places S S Sx 28 S Bullstece = 
Am (BG. BO RO eee 
500: to OOO eye ee > 2 4 0 0 9 
Concentrated Counties ..... 0 0 ge 0 0 2 
Non-Concentrated Counties . es 2 0 0 tf 
1.000 to2,500 Cae area tern 9 1 6 20 
Concentrated Counties ..... 4 0 3 3 1 11 
Non-Concentrated Counties . 5 1 3 0 0 9 
2,000 to 5.000 Beyer ee 9 0 11 Zo 2 24 
Concentrated Counties ..... 8 0 6 1 1 16 
Non-Concentrated Counties. 1 0 5 1 1 8 
5,000 to 10, O00 Rete a rune ee 4 0 4 0 ye 10 
Concentrated Counties ..... 3 0 4 0 1 8 
Non-Concentrated Counties. 1 0 0 0 1 2 
Totals Ji cc ora weee aedee eat 25 2 25 5 5 63 
Concentrated Counties ..... 15 0 15 4 3 5 Fe 
Non-Concentrated Counties . 10 3 10 1 2 26 


TABLES 63 


TABLE XXVIII—DISTRIBUTION, BY SIZE OF PLACE, OF 
AGENCY UNITS UNDER INTENSIVE AND NON-INTEN- 
SIVE SUPERVISION 


Size of Supervision 
Incorp. Place Intensive Non-Intensive 

AIDE LT OU a Ce as ae a dd ce cd Rete Cha Jil 9.6 
USP OO LUO C7 aa BAe EArt ce Peal hs 26.2 25.9 
SIMMER UD Nees ila peta eee A Oey 26.2 33.1 
ere EOL) Fo is iis Daa cate ce nk Lin ae PA 20.5 
Be TON LO OU Pr Loe ie eras a Sos) ee, 15.4 10.9 

PLRSEA EME Me age 2 clay he esis clack ots Prtatcrs 100.0 100.0 


TABLE XXIX—DISTRIBUTION BY SIZE OF PLACES OF BOY 
SCOUT UNITS UNDER INTENSIVE AND NON-INTENSIVE 


SUPERVISION 
Supervision 
Size of Intensive Non-Intensive 
Incorp. Place Number Per Cent. Number Per Cent. 
TOPCUEOUY hc ce nics Cia dak oh es 0 0.0 6 10.2 
PAU WOU td seo ou alae 10 24.4 16 27.1 
BRU DU, ene Sse eprint ak 12 29.2 17 28.8 
Ree TOO, UU in ns so paid a ee pe fee 9 22.0 12 20.4 
BU Ee OOO Ne oaks oats heals sae 10 24.4 8 13.5 


CHAPTER IV 
TAKING ROOT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY 


The report now enters its second phase. Up to this point 
it has been studying the data primarily from the standpoint of 
the initiating national agencies. It now turns to consider the 
same data from the standpoint of the responsive communities. 
The work has now become local. Whether present through 
intensive territorial organization or not, the national agencies 
are presumed to be no more than helpful partners. Responsi- 
bility now primarily rests with the home folks. 

The specific subjects of investigation become, therefore, the 
groups and members which constitute the local units of organi- 
zation and character-building effort. In the 415 occupied com- 
munities, as already noted, an aggregate total of 619 occu- 
pancies by the five national agencies was found. But the 
agencies generally have more than one organized unit in a com- 
munity. The total actually discovered was 1,268 groups, an 
average of over two per community, with 25,455 members. 

The average size of the organized group ranges from thir- 
teen members for the Camp Fire Girls to twenty-eight for the 
Young Women’s Christian Association, the Young Men’s 
Christian Association and Boy Scouts average being twenty 
and twenty-two respectively. Unsupervised groups tend to be 
larger than officially supervised ones. Girls’ groups average 
smaller than boys’.* Junior Extension Clubs are likely to have 
about ten members on the average. 

By what processes did these organizations become rooted in 
the 415 communities, and what are they like now that they have 
been naturalized there? 

_1Tables XXXIII, XXXIV and XXXV. These tables show the distribu- 
tion of the units and members studied by agency and by geographical region; 


and should have careful attention. For the ratio of the membership sample 
to the total membership of the agencies, see p. 32. 
64 


TAKING ROOT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY _ 65 


ORIGINS AND DURATION 


Since organization in so many of the occupied communities 
was the result of their permeation by the idea of work for boys 
and girls rather than of direct and deliberate promotion by the 
agencies, the question of the origins of local units is a separate 
one from that of the origins of promotional organizations. 
Local testimony was sought on this point. According to this 
testimony, almost exactly half of the present local units were 
started by some private individual, most frequently a minister 
or educator, who, however, generally acted on his own responsi- 
bility rather than formally in behalf of his church or school. 
Forty-three per cent. only of the units were started by paid 
representatives of the agencies entering the community officially 
in their promotional work. Formal action of local groups and 
organizations—such as Women’s Clubs, Rotary or Kiwanis 
organizations—originated the remaining units. 


DIFFERENCES AMONG AGENCIES 


The Young Men’s Christian Association and the Young 
Women’s Christian Association, which alone of the five 
agencies have special “rural” departments, were generally 
organized by paid representatives, while the Girl Scouts and 
Camp Fire Girls originated almost exclusively with local com- 
munities Puemectyes, as the ieee Scouts did in about four-fifths 
of the cases.” 


LAPSED LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 


The practical problem of organization is, however, not so 
much one of getting started as of keeping alive. For the five 
agencies studied, there was found one dead organization for 
every three living ones. The difference among agencies was 
very great in this respect, the ratio of dead organizations in 
the territory studied being eight and four-tenths to ten living 
ones for the Camp Fire Girls, but only one and four-tenths to 
ten for the Young Women’s Christian Association.* 


2 Table XXXVI. 
8 Table XXXVII. 


66 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


The life of the lapsed units was most frequently one or two 
years. Less than one-twelfth of the total survived five years. 
Intensive supervision was not found to add to their longevity.* 


HISTORY OF LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS 


This bare enumeration of lapsed and living organizations 
only records the net results of an interesting process of organi- 
zational ups and downs and ins and outs which has been traced 
fairly completely in just one hundred cases for the decade 
1913-1924. The results are summarized in Table XXX. 


TABLE XXX—PERMANENCE OF AGENCIES, 1913-1924 
(100 Cases) 


Agencies 
Boys’ Girls’ Total 
Communities with one agency for same sex 
Number having— 


Continuous, existence 25. bea ena cleaticas eke 2 4 6 
Lapse and reorganization after interval ...... 18 ve 20 
Permatieat lapse. “yale pan teu earn oe 2 1 , 
FE OtaN Wo. ve caer pic etre en eee heey ek Le 4 29 
Communities with two agencies for same sex 
Number having— 
PUCCESSIVE OFSan ization vein tne se oats tena eS 17 20 af 
Lapse of first followed after interval by 
BECOME CROC Cee ea Son ve tee te il 15 26 
Lapse of first followed immediately by second 6 5 af 
Overlapping Oreanizavioiney eval cana ek ee ae 23 11 34 
First: comet vsurvived tan ciias sande coe esene, 4 8 
Second (Gomer: surviveu ci «cab sil eee von 1 1 2 
Both 7 auryive i ie ee ere ee a iW 4 6 23 
Botlt Jansed Mea es se ce eae 1 0 1 
TOtal cee acs eee ao as eae ex roar ae errs 40 31 71 


Twenty-nine of these communities had never had more than 
one agency for a given sex during the period studied. Very 
few of their organizations, however, had had continuous exist- 
ence. The prevailing tendency is toward lapses and reorgani- 


4 Table XXXVIII. It should be noted that the data on which this table 
is based are not sufficient in amount to warrant the conclusion that this 
generalization applies to every one of the agencies. 


TAKING ROOT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY ~ 67 


zations again after an interval, though the ratio of permanent 
lapses is smaller than in communities where competitive 
agencies were present. 

Lapse is thus no warrant for assuming the permanent death 
of organization. Indeed it is so frequent as to suggest some- 
thing almost normal. Organizations in small communities die 
down, are revived and die again. Cases appeared in which such 
alternations were repeated sometimes as often as four times 
during the decade, even when no rival agency was present to 
affect the situation. ! 

Seventy of the one hundred communities studied had two 
agencies during some part of the decade, and there was a single 
case of three agencies. These cases yielded an almost exactly 
equal number of examples of successive and of overlapping 
organization. 

In case of successive organization, an interval usually oc- 
curred between the lapse of the first agency and the organiza- 
tion of a second. In nearly one-third of the cases, however, 
such organization followed immediately. The field study re- 
vealed a considerable number of instances in which rival 
agencies confessed that they were closely watching the fortunes 
of local groups of other agencies, ready to pounce upon the 
community at the first opportunity. 

With overlapping organizations, both agencies had survived 
(up to the date of the study) in twenty-three out of thirty-three 
cases. When one of the rivals succumbed it was usually the 
second comer. The rather slender data give little encourage- 
ment to the agency that would try to supplant another which 
is still in existence. 

Comparing the twenty cases in which lapse was followed by 
a revival of the same agency with the thirty-seven in which a 
different agency came in, one is impelled to wonder why the 
tendency to change the auspices of character-building work 
is so much greater than the tendency to continue under old 
auspices. 

The above generalization necessarily omits many of the com- 
plicating facts of the decade of organizational history. Thus, 
in reporting the number of duplicatory organizations in the 


68 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


same community which still survive, the table fails to show that 
more than one-fifth of these have had their own lapses and 
revivals during the period. But this is no higher a rate of 
lapse and revival than when there is no duplication. 

Again, there have been numerous unsuccessful attempts to 
revive lapsed units which the data do not show. 

Finally, the accounting is only in terms of communities. The 
Boy Scouts, for example, may have several troops in the com- 
munity, but if any troop has survived for the decade its organi- 
zation is counted as continuous, though many troops may have 
been lost for good. The impermanence of the separate units 
is thus much greater than that of the community organization. 


DURATION AS AFFECTED BY SIZE OF COMMUNITY 


The average life of the local unit tends to be considerably 
longer in larger communities than in smaller ones, as is shown 
by Table XXXI. 


TABLE XXXI—LENGTH OF LIFE OF 232 LAPSED UNITS OF 
THE AGENCIES IN PLACES OF VARYING SIZE 


Length of Life in Years 
2-3 4-5 


Size of No. of Under 2 Over 5 

Place Cases No. No. No. No. 
Under ® 250° etre eae ae 13 7 v 0 
250° to “SO0s a eee 52 25 23 3 1 
BOO" to LOU eae eae 65 28 19 12 6 
1,000: to 2,500 eae 59 21 25 11 2 
2,000 0 210 OOO ieee cee 34 10 16 = 4%: 


The facts revealed may presumably be explained by the larger 
supply of boys and girls, the greater amount of available 
leadership and generally by the more ship-shape conduct of 
social institutions in the larger places. They tend to emphasize 
the greater need and handicap of the smaller ones. 


AGE OF LIVING UNITS 


Most of the work of the agencies found by the study was of 
recent origin, 268 out of 579 units reporting on this point being 
less than two years old.° This means that it is just getting 


5 Table XXXIX. 


TAKING ROOT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY _ 69 


under way. The normal life span of this new crop of organi- 
zations is by no means settled. In view, however, of the large 
proportion of the lapsed ones and their brief existence in the 
past, the prospect of long life for the living units is not to be 
taken for granted. Supervision, backing and the other forces 
of conservation may, in the future, greatly increase longevity, 
but they have not yet proved that they can do so. 


CHARACTERISTICS OF ORGANIZED GROUPS 


What are the 25,455 boys and girls like who were found in 
groups of twenty on the average under the label and the organ- 
ized influence of the agencies? 


AGE TENDENCIES 


More than two-thirds of the membership of the five agencies, 
as determined by 9,295 cases reported in Table XXXI, for the 
counties studied, were between ten and fifteen years of age, 
and of this group the great majority were between the ages of 
twelve and fifteen. The two Scout organizations have the 
largest proportion of young members and the two Christian 
Associations of older ones. Boys’ organizations have more 
young members than girls’. 


TABLE XXXII—DISTRIBUTION BY AGE OF 9,295 MEMBERS 
THE AGENCIES 


(22 Counties) 
Per Cent. Distribution by Years of Age 


_No. of Total 

Agency Members 10-13 14-15 16-17 18-20 10-20 
NE GY Se Re 1050 ii 2o.4 iin oes0e 30.0 9.0 100.0 
Tey OCOULSH Royse hag edule 3,402 440 38.1 15.8 2.1 100.0 
PEORATS BOY Sri. v'v'e » Cae TR LAE BY AE LSS Rt RA 46 100.0 

BPP eRe he o%\s alps se 8 eine BAO ICI A OO eto 10.4 100.0 
PLOTS) 6 i ed Secs ts O59 AO) Weis Zal 15.2 Zh 100.0 
Gamo Fire: Girls ij.4 .. da 54% 742 DS av 2s) 29.6 11.7 100.0 
MITEL Ee WRAL ABN Gre yaaa 2. wor ateod. we atoton yr 20.0 8.7 100.0 


oral Apencies & 7. 25s p75! ss 5 > Ss Ses 0 6.3 100.0 


70 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


All told, about seventy out of every one hundred members 
of the combined agencies are under sixteen years of age. Later 
adolescence is very little served. 


ENVIRONMENTAL AND CULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS 


Nearly one-fourth of the entire number of members are from 
farm homes, the agencies which have definite “rural” and 
“town and country” departments having relatively more from 
this source.® This is a significant proportion. It includes, of 
course, the children of many. suburban farmers; also those who 
belong to school groups located outside of their home com- 
munities. On the other hand, it means that three-fourths of 
those reached by so-called “rural’? work are not from farm 
homes. 

The average attendance at the stated meetings of organized 
groups is nearly three-fourths of the membership—a better 
record than that of the rural Sunday school.’ 

Fighty-six per cent. of the combined membership under six- 
teen years of age is also enrolled in Sunday school, showing 
that in these years the agencies are largely dealing with the 
same boys and girls as the church.* Sixty-one per cent. of their 
members over sixteen are also church members,’ showing that 
with later adolescence the agencies and the church more largely 
supplement one another, each securing some adherents where 
the other fails. 

Neither church nor agencies are strong with later adoles- 
cence. They largely fail to hold the young man and woman. 


DEGREE OF ADVANCEMENT OF MEMBERS 


Sixty-one per cent. of the Boy Scouts, 73 per cent. of the 
Girl Scouts *° and 83 per cent. of the Camp Fire Girls were in 
the lowest rank of the respective organizations (“‘tenderfeet,” 


9 Table XLIII. 
10 Table XLIV. 


TAKING ROOT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY 71 


etc.)..7 The Young Men’s Christian Association and the 
Young Women’s Christian Association groups are not usually 
organized by “degrees” of advancement based on definite re- 
quirements. Forty-one per cent. of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association members were, however, in Grammar School 
groups,” None of the agencies except the Young Women’s 
Christian Association have to do primarily with members who 
have reached the high-school stage of education.** 

About one-fourth of the membership of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association and the Young Women’s Christian Asso- 
ciation consists of young men or women employed in business 
or industry. This is due to special stress on the organization 
of these classes in a limited number of counties, 

The fact that most of the agencies do not reckon advance- 
ment by comparable stages makes it important to study them 
individually in the appended tables.** 


EFFECTS OF SUPERVISION 


As shown in the tables, there are relatively more group mem- 
bers from farm homes *® and more church members among the 
older group members in supervised than in unsupervised terri- 
tory; *° but there are fewer younger group members in Sunday 
school,”’ less steady attendance ** and a slighter degree of aver- 
age advancement of members, in agencies where this factor can 
be traced.*® 

No explanation of these facts occurs. Probably the average 
organization is so young that supervision has not had time to 
work out any consistent effects. 

11 Table XLV. 

12 Table XLVI. 

13 Table XLVII. 

14 Tables XLIV to XLVII inclusive. 
15 Table XL. 

16 Table XLII. 

17 Table XLII. 


18 Table XLI. 
19 Table XLIV. 


72 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 
SUMMARY 


The impression left by this series of data is that the local 
work of the agencies is not very deep-rooted nor permanent. It 
is not, on the whole, continuously influential with individuals, 
nor is it very successful in advancing them through the degrees 
recognized by the respective agencies. On the other hand, the 
very unevenness of the results confronts one with an impressive 
spectacle of continuous local demand and persistence. The 
starting of the work has not depended primarily on paid repre- 
sentatives of the agencies nor have they conspicuously served 
to keep it alive. As it dies down and reappears—often under 
another label—it exhibits strange versatility and vitality. 
What seems to be evidenced is a deep instinct to serve youth 
coupled with uncertainty and inadequacy of means. 


FURTHER PROBLEMS 


Before passing judgment on these conclusions attention 
should be given to a number of questions whose answers lie 
beyond the data. 


(1) For example, what degree of continuity in local units 
should be expected in view of the small amount of available 
human material for membership in the lesser rural communi- 
ties? There are simply not enough boys and girls there to 
furnish a new group instantly when the old one has out- 
grown a given phase of organization.*® Repeatedly the field 
investigators were told, “No, we have no Scouts now—but 
we shall have as soon as we can grow another lot.” 

(2) May not the very brief average life span of the local 
organization have partly a psychological explanation? Or- 
ganized youth-groups often, perhaps normally, originate in 
or evolve into gangs. Gangs integrate and dissolve according 
to mental and social processes which may have been intended 
by nature to be brief. May not the lapse of an organization 
even in two or three years sometimes mean that it has done 
its work for one group and must wait for another to appear? 

(3) May not the “jobbing around” of communities to find 
another similar agency under which to organize its youth 


20 See Table XXX. 


TAKING ROOT IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY 73 


when a former one has lapsed be merely the evidence of in- 
adequate psychology? No one wants to attempt to carry 
on a failure. Lapse is taken to mean failure. Consequently 
the tendency is to “try something new.” While doubtless this 
should teach the agencies that no one of them is indispensable, 
does it not, partially at least, turn the record of apparent 
impermanency into the story of a somewhat continuous quest 
for something more satisfactory in behalf of youth, even 
though the quest often takes impatient and unreasonable 
forms? 

(4) Does not the relative failure of the total work to 
reach older adolescents point the need of special effort in 
their behalf ? 

(5) What agency in the community can supply the element 
of continuity in the character-building process which the na- 
tional agencies (so far) so conspicuously lack? Must it be 
left to the chief sponsoring agencies, church and school, or 
somehow to the community at large? 

(6) Should not the methods of accounting used by the 
national agencies reveal and keep before the imagination the 
phenomena of waxing and waning as the previous data have 
displayed them? Reports from territorial organizations to 
their national headquarters now generally deal only with net 
results. If there is a gain in the total number of organized 
units and members, questions are not asked about how many 
losses there were. Church statistics, which are poor enough, 
do better than this, reporting losses as well as gains. Do not 
the agencies need to deal more frankly and courageously with 
themselves and their constituencies as to lapses, discontinuity 
and brevity of influence, acknowledging the worst but put- 
ting a more adequate interpretation upon the total facts? 


CHAPTER IV, Continued 


TABLES 


TABLE XXXITI—NUMBER OF ORGANIZED GROUPS OF THE 
AGENCIES CLASSIFIED BY REGION AND BY TYPE OF 


SUPERVISION 
(53 Counties) 
Region 

Agency and Type North 

of Supervision Northeast South Central West Total 
ON CA Sie kes 142 3 114 106 365 

Intensives ia ee 142 1 Lis 106 362 

Non-Intensive ....... 0 2 i 0 P| 
Boy !ScOuts Awiel vec 183 45 81 116 425 

Intensive i aaa Sie bee 106 28 38 105 277 

Non-Intensive ....... V7 17 43 ll 148 
WOW GLA Ce een pees 103 38 62 47 250 

AHLENSIVE Lost ees 90 38 44 43 VA) 

Non-Intensive ....... 13 0 18 4 35 
Girl Scouts eu: inten 64 8 30 26 128 

Intensive? Me aietior e 0 0 0 10 10 

Non-Intensive ....... 64 & 30 16 118 
Camp Fire Girls ates ee 27 3 41 29 100 
LOLS & ; ten Ronee GirLiee 519 97 328 324 1,268 

Intensive incce de eee 338 67 195 264 864 

Non-Intensive ....... 181 30 133 60 404 


74 


TABLES 75 


TABLE XXXIV—NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF ORGANIZED 
GROUPS OF THE AGENCIES CLASSIFIED BY REGION 
AND BY TYPE OF SUPERVISION 


(53 Counties) 


Region 

Agency and Type North 
of Supervision Northeast South Central W est Total 
SOE Oey Re Pg es 3,504 25 1,998 1,508 7,035 
BELCDISEVG OK oy 'e elites 3,504 Fi 1,984 1,508 7,003 
Non-Intensive ....... 0 18 14 0 32 
MSV ACRE. pear’. ans. 5 3 3,484 639 1,695 2,583 8,401 
TU STONSEV Gon Wh af tcnt <8 2,130 357 803 2,341 5,631 
Non-Intensive ....... 1,354 282 892 242 2/70 
BMVE NEN ets oak aie ta tat 2,210 836 2,233 1,553 6,832 
A CTISIVE es icccs ae ok 1,972 536 bh we 1,464 5,789 
Non-Intensive ....... 238 0 716 8&9 1,043 
EL RCOULS | ies so sales 995 101 521 373 1,990 
PUTCHSIVES gis irc ar wie < 0 0 0 135 135 
Non-Intensive ....... 995 101 521 238 1,855 
Camp Fire Girls ....... 314 42 423 418 1,197 
“USAC ROCESS Sod eae Vom 10,507 1,643 6,870 6,435 25,455 
MtenSIVE ss os ass es sks 7,606 1,200 4,304 5,448 18,558 


Non-Intensive ....... 2,901 443 2,566 987 6,897 


76 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE XXXV—AVERAGE SIZE OF ORGANIZED GROUPS OF 
THE AGENCIES CLASSIFIED BY REGION AND BY TYPE 
OF SUPERVISION 


(53 Counties) 


Region 

Agency and Type North 
of Supervision Northeast South Central West Total 
PY VE ete acing arts 25 12 18 15 20 
LHhnsiVel bie MGneca ess 25 7 18 15 20 
Non-Intensive (i..0... 0 18 14 0 16 
DOV eOGOULS B45 eas FAVA 16 21 14 22 
THPENSIVBs (oak cee ae. 22 hs 21 22 on 
Non-Intensive ....... 25 19 21 22 23 
YO AS IA Alen eat ee cae 22 ie 36 33 28 
Intetisive eee eee 22 22 34 34 27 
Non-Intensive ....... 18 0 39 22 30 
GirlvSennis auc wossoatet 20 17 19 14 18 
LENE Src eee 0 0 0 14 14 
Non-Intensive ....... 20 a7. 19 15 20 
Camp ‘Fire’ Girls 05544 14 14 12 15 13 
SD OTAIS s,s haat hte oe ren 23 19 22 20 21 
DTiterisivetnn. Lo oe ks ele 23 19 22 21 22 
Non-Intensive ....... 21 18 2l Lf 20 


TABLE XXXVI—DISTRIBUTION OF LOCAL AND AGENCY 
INITIATIVE IN STARTING 495 LOCAL UNITS OF THREE 


AGENCIES 
Per Cent. Distribution of Responsibility 
Local Agency 
Agency and Type No. of Other Or- 
of Supervision Cases Individual Group ganization 
MCAD tec eee 113 8.8 0.0 0.0 91.2 
Boy Scouts Revues 177 70.1 0. 9.6 19.8 
Intensive 7. ech 4s 115 60.9 0.0 9.5 29.6 
Non-Intensive ..... 62 87.1 1.6 97 1.6 
YW. CAL ee ener 102 24.5 2.0 49 68.6 
Intensive) eee ae. &1 111 Fed 5.0 82.7 
Non-Intensive ..... 21 76.2 48 4.8 14.2 
Girl Stouts eee 47 80.9 ‘MI 12.8 42 
Camp Fire Girls ..... 56 82.1 7.1 5.4 5.4 
Ota AG otersaaes 495 49.1 1.6 6.3 43.0 


TABLES 77 


TABLE XXXVII—RATIO OF LAPSED TO LIVING UNITS OF 
THE AGENCIES 


No. of Lapsed Units 
Agency Living Units Number Per Cent. 
DES Ay hy ch Tethys so Wales 6s oe A 365 79 22 
PPE SOULS irl tere tele oe esti ak OMe 425 170 40 
VPA AAT Nr ile Uh Wee eh ha. 250 36 14 
eT COUS taetl a tials Gade dere clas Pees 128 Je 25 
SRST O TILA Si). oe eek 6 Se 100 76 76 
ORAL SS aR o Lad a’ stane bok vee cma 1,268 393 31 


TABLE XXXVIII—LENGTH OF LIFE OF 227 LAPSED UNITS OF 
THE AGENCIES IN INTENSIVELY SUPERVISED AND 
NON-INTENSIVELY SUPERVISED AREAS 


Agency and Type of Supervision 


a 
Girl Fire 
A. Boy Scouts Y.W.C.A.ScoutsGirls Total 


Y.M.C.A 

Length of Life eS os ES ta jeceimes on) VE) sed 
(Years) So tenon) Ue ti od Sona eUtae reed pen thy C8) et a 
Wterale ssi acto ta Ls ye Bh So 2) Oe Cet. panes ee 
EDR OE Oy Cae TSW OW Vl en ain 2.00) 2h dy Ss ah) eee 
aN eee Gini en eas Yr Gi ON tS het Own Land 
EY ee SW Ome teense: Cty 00) 0 Onin Cama memes 
he Ce ee WALD leh Lae hake tof OCF Le Ot eames 
SL Lee pe aes Oates Oe eee Sn Cr) 7: 0.\. 51.0 see a 
a CO Cre Cue Laer: Ose 03). 24) Zine emma 
ise EA ee ee Pe OM Qo ber Os Ooh Oat ae ee 
MAO Acie e's ess To eon Giewatte © Or Oe\) Oe Ok eet 
Lc ee Oar On amdtmn Ordos 00) 00 ih 2a amme 
RES Li ciocn eteiices Ui OO Ope Ostia te ON, 04.9) 0. eae 
PRCOD Sah He oie hss OO Oi alah Ont) Oy - Oty Ce ae 
eralen ey ah OF ADS ibe. 2s -eTT SG Aina e 


"8 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE XXXIX—DATE OF ESTABLISHMENT OF 579 ORGAN- 
IZED GROUPS OF THE AGENCIES 


Date of Agency 

Estab- Girl Camp Fire 

lishment Y.M.C.A. Scots Y.W.C.A. Scouts Girls Total 
Oto ees Skee’ 1 0 0 0 0 1 
TO are ie eet, 1 1 1 0 0 3 
TOOOT Sy pce ee se 2 0 0 0 0 2 
Wasa oceans 1 4 0 0 0 5 
TUL Ue eck k« 0 1 0 0 0 1 
i LD WA oats PN 0 4 0 0 1 5 
1016 Herta Sar 2 4 S 0 0 8 
LER A ECE 1 4 0 0 0 5 
LULA ee ea ee 1 11 2 1 1 16 
OTA Rees eee 3 vi 2 1 2 15 
1 A WA) Pee RON ee 1 8 3 1 3 16 
LOIB Teele 7 5 7 3 3 25 
y LEN A es RE mg 12 17 14 2 10 be 
O20 TA as ava 12 15 24 13 7 71 
LOPE Sette oe ats 8 24 2. 10 14 83 
REAR ES We Uh alley tA 12 39 29 27 17 124 
1902S ae ae 22 Jé 10 13 23 140 
Rr DE Ree ga us 3 0 1 0 4 

Ota rae es 86 219 vet | 72 81 579 


TABLE XL—PROPORTION OF AGENCY MEMBERS FROM 


FARM FAMILIES 
Agency and Type 


of Supervision Per Cent. 
9s OA te. Wa aie a Sarr Sy Ceci A PEA af NK LAE Rae WP SCR SMA OD tal 29.3 
Intensive bo 8e. Be Eee Oak Ue ec are Ce aa as en 29.4 
Non-[ntensivey ca Gi ree a Pe oe eae oie oe een ites en Sur 
BGy  ScOnts 5. Ge AeA ees sen eee tate atiwe ieee adie satan ee Rane eRe 17.4 
Drrteti Saye. es ce See Ne oye eh ee enet oa ele anh ean Ont 18.2 
Non-Tatensiyee sol eee tao ea a oP) tier, do a renege ona oa TSF 
Total Boys'~ Maa es aate ne on ate semiele N ee ee actrees aa cheetah ase eee tae 
[ntensive Ate os ae sy, eek nna cla a oo Uae XO eae GL en eae 24.8 
Non-[ tensive feces wena e biaee ea le a haus es pce oie cei 15.6 
BO) Osh, Vamp ms Mh be Gia Ua ORE VEER Sep ol ld ld 29.6 
Tntensive aoe a ee es Wis ea Ge tee ee ake ee ee 30.9 
Non- Interns tare 5 he sea ee eo beta gai ce Gok eae ee ee eo 25.9 
Girl Scouts) 4a we Bee oe Pie pe ok Le gee, ee ee 19.2 
(Non-Intensive ) 
GCamn (Fire Girlki 0a0 oon mss «cee ue peas k aie oe eee Se ee 23.4 
Total. Girls) nea ee Ne oh) Ae Lae 255 
Intensive oe ieee ilies Getnte nies bate ten ke a 8 i ae eet en 309 
Non-Tntensives yo fats cd 0 oe ela wie lente biel ws ey oe at eee cau 
Total Agencies c5u3 Peale how als ay Cae cee ees 23.4 
nesta ks RE Ie, Ry a te neh Chee mel AeA PAE Wk lo og AO diel! 26.0 


TABLES 79 


TABLE XLI—RATIO OF ATTENDANCE TO ENROLLMENT AT 
MEETINGS OF LOCAL UNITS OF THE AGENCIES 


Agency and Type 


of Supervision Per Cent. 
PS DUCES OAs ae Oe IE oe ADS AW OU UROL LAA Nidal Po fn Pts A ee 74.5 
COT cee kt ee |r Oa RRR Maa EON SE NIRV ot NE YUE Bf Or BI OLR 74.5 
OTA TELS OTLEL VOL 5388 vo Wie aie Ga daae Ta ead Batra a de daatd eA ny Ucar 78.6 
AEROS ES tears eres CN The ah eS AC ease Se cae eCard Md nude 78.5 
C8 eS SUS ATS SAORI OME RI asa haa APC Rg) ROP ag AMOR LEAT ce pt Fey a el au a is 
SE) EVES TES 8p alt EO Ged IRD MER OL yO OM ea Ma ONL RAI Lig AAs De PLA 79.0 
SEVERE RUMEN YS TM tone Schl Js. sat Yooh ches BALH cee AIA Meith Wwe ee are Meee tae 76.5 
Ra erter Velie ar si, .kcirur ue! Nuch LU IY i) Bre ray Cragg meh OI tees cation Fhe 
PTE ETO SIVE) Ofc lu esta telat cae alaae ease MAE LEN nA haCk wu duro Ut 79.0 
eR TEEN, HIT OR I0 Bale nO Aa DGGE ORR ABLE aD 20) MR MAB EUUI ORAM ICEL GIS 65.0 
ELST eNO te here Mc ohlig hadnt a Patio a Tia 4! Gea ed cI Aen | URCN SS alee Se a 64.9 
og SOE CSOT ES UML OE RSE) RR gee: Se SN ral meee ON 65.2 
REC EMCSCESTI TS Amey leo) pig a leila cri ake Vhs ANGRY Gd =) EMC MOL CFEN OE Re aA Lula My 80.0 
(Non-Intensive) 
PCA GER DOT RLS 0 ta AL aT On UR aI ee Re RR 85.0 
eet diS Wier ret so mig ine Ak | ley ih Bie Miva 69.7 
eRe ts ty crs a re eed eas Stee LPs So Aus LAWN oe oe 64.9 
BESTEST Verrtey eed! Ie esl RE NUL e Lert’ Lib MULE, 18.4 
EMER er OTICLE Em Mr Me LU ELV aaah ine Ge Wa ylace a My g Ghat a's ak ges shatouh taieny 23.3 
PERT Lay Emr Tenier ncn kd Soca AG Lith Sin ary gl dl alura ge ig etre A ab enter ame 70.2 
Pe IMETIUPTI SE URW oe ce eet ig ieee Wha ulead ae CNN ic ty ieee ee 78.9 


TABLE XLII—PROPORTION OF AGENCY MEMBERS UNDER 
16 YEARS OF AGE WHO ARE SUNDAY-SCHOOL PUPILS 


Agency and Type 


of Supervision Per Cent. 
MOEN. CM A SST GI RRS LAR REALL) BU is eco LE ea PURO GA Le 80.4 
PRETEEN eee ae le ene he ME PRC Bm nme a gary Caine oe ale Nay 80.7 
eT OTIST UE, Winders aie eg ate orale een Pate aed ads tao a bk ol Mcecl tea 100.0 
eer REIT T Ses atl ies y is eta Baran a MRL Le RM ia TR Ab A gy 85.6 
PEL TORTSN VERT Ee Ch ahs oe sia At ee Ce te aye tear LAS ee tN ah 4.0 
oO fy PA Cala Wie RAD RR a OGL Te NEN STS LAR LO 87.0 
TAD ETO CRMIRT EERIE git Rept aLOY 4, NE Ost EN sO OY RE SOLAS A RRP Gig LA 84.0 
EES A Melia UEC Ags 2 eA Pe CoEDG AOE Wen OLE) aU mee Pari WLR 82.2 


80 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


PA he are a ee, ls ee ee 87.2 
THtensives onic b oSs s oboe Cae FA Wee Hb Re as eee cree ae eee 86.6 
Wonsliitensives ¢ os coo ee Oo bce rare eo bae a tata a enn ane es 90.7 

Gifts Semarts oc ee ae eo EE er 96.8 
(Non-Intensive) 

Camo Fire? Girls’ (249, ose ase entre fe ee poe en eet eee 90.8 

Total S5irls’ o.oo Pg Vie eee 90.7 
Tritenstye. use Fk alate ee ei ee Peas ree ee Bee 56.6 
Non-Intérisive 86 soe Pe eV Ga ae ae eee ere 93.9 

Total: Agencies i,).5\.5 si 6 Pests Ma onal Vrs ee ee 86.7 
Interisivéd 6) 2b oe i ee PA eee 83.6 
Non-Intensive:) i 5.6 si ebele ake ee ae eee ee 90.2 


TABLE XLIII—~PROPORTION OF AGENCY MEMBERS 16 YEARS 
OF AGE AND OVER WHO ARE CHURCH-MEMBERS 


Agency and Type 


of Supervision Per Cent. 
VOM Aas cic cres e On eee eee WOT eka eevee an wae eee 56.7 
Lriterstve iol o's dual scene het ole ke ec ae ote ae eee ate 56.1 
Non-Intensive! 4 ).2 oya)bt ee ea ere ae 100.0 
Boyt Scoutgey is £5 ave holes ade Cetera eee 54.5 
Intensive 255. SL AGeu ee cities MERE ne ee ace ee eo ee 43.7 
Non-lntensivé fos a ees Oa se at ee eee 64.0 
TotalS Boys) weiss Gary soteaes sem vee k cel cy coral ane oe 56.0 
Tntéristyey cc ose hee Bt ee roan Ce 53.6 
NonslIntensives ch. 04 cn Prem coe kis Cee ce ae re Lee 65.4 
YW GA ee ee ee a ein Beene ce eget ot 0 tn 70.0 
Intensive 4 uae ick aalatec Wine ian odie eee bal bee ake ae 74.6 
Noti-intensivess crocs be ihy Cin Seeks Bebe Leelee 56.0 
Girls Scotts Aviso eda ee dick cece alt he ee eee 56.1 
(Non-Intensive) 
Camp: Fire’ Girls © vig idctin vs beet ow cries ceca eee ae 54.7 
Total (gir lad ie cee Lia eee i a ie oa nk ekg ee 65.9 
Triteu sive ware, sh ocais cebu he che vc cae sc abuele Ae eat Cee aa 74.6 
Non-Interisiveroih re re Ue BR oe ee baa 
Total Agencies sy c4ib sce weed cate Sah k ee ae ee ieee oir 2 rere 61.1 
Intensives oy cots eae ule Bae daa bhai eect a ne 62.5 


TABLES $1 


TABLE XLIV—DISTRIBUTION BY RANK OF 5,189 BOY SCOUTS 
AND 686 GIRL SCOUTS 


Rank 

Agency Tender- 2nd Ist Eagles, 

and Type feet Class Class etc. Total 

of Supervision Nol. '% 9. Now So. «NO 9% 4 No. %) No.) % 
RV RSOOIES 0 dd’ fi > 6's 3,180 61.3 1,406 27.1 577 11.1 260.5 5,189 100.0 

Aetengrve oy ies ees 2,029 65.1 F716 25.0. 293) GA 15 0.5 3,215 1000 

Non-Intensive ..... 1,157 55.8.0 (628 30,3) 284 T3705 2A E000 
TieecOuts iL tikn. ees (O00 Fon. IBI2Z6.44 V2008% 00.0579) 686 400.0 


(Non-Intensive) 


TABLE XLV—DISTRIBUTION BY RANK OF 686 GIRL SCOUTS 
AND 359 CAMP FIRE GIRLS 


Girl Scouts Camp Fire Girls 
Rank Per Cent. Rank Per Cent. 
emer reet secs s es 703 Woodgatherers: ,....-s5+ 83.5 
PNAS ST lhe cs ee conse ce 26.4 Fire Marerst ie hie es 13.4 
eR Ne aks. we 0.3 ‘POrch DeArers: chek cca 3.1 
8 LOS Ia) ee aN 100.0 Pata bie soe ee anaes 100.0 


TABLE XLVI—DISTRIBUTION BY TYPE OF 5,984 MEMBERS 
OF THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 


Type Number Per Cent. 
[SPA MIIAT SCIDOL PEDUPS ocd He Kanne oi oie 2,495 41.7 
RETO DG tue ss k's d's wiel Pics Eva ere dea 2,119 35.4 
MRA SI Sie Since da tery Sis a ate Welned ait 1,082 18.1 
Re aT a oes ih hy ye nls nahi els 288 48 

oe SAE ee a Ne ONY Mn Tea 5,984 100.0 


TABLE XLVII—DISTRIBUTION BY TYPE OF 4,134 MEMBERS 
OF THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 
IN 11 INTENSIVELY SUPERVISED COUNTIES COMPARED 
WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL MEMBERS IN THE 
TOWN AND COUNTRY DEPARTMENT 


Headquar- 

Field Study Results ters Data 

Type Number Per Cent. Per Cent. 
Grade school groups .......s.005 1,144 2/76 21.8 
High school Girl Reserves ....... 2,110 51.1 51.6 
Business. Sirs’ LTOUPS ......0s0%s 829 20.1 21.4 
Industrial girls’ groups .......... 51 12 mye 


a 


NSE dos @apeeis Venlo a a 4,134 100.0 100.0 


CHAPTER V. 


HOW COMMUNITIES MAKE THE WORK THEIR 
OWN 


Any agency new to a community can, of course, get into it 
permanently only by securing a local group of supporters and 
members. Once organized, however, such a group is usually 
organizationally self-sufficient. It may belong to some national 
movement, follow its rules and customs and even receive finan- 
cial aid, but its members are regarded as competent to conduct 
their own affairs, generally to become legally incorporated and 
largely to support their enterprise financially. 

Nationally organized work for youth, on the contrary, pre- 
sents special problems, because its members are not adminis- 
tratively nor economically self-sufficient. They are under the 
control of their elders; and agencies coming in from outside of 
the community feel that they have to lodge responsibility in 
adult hands.* 

In local communities there are alternative solutions of this 
problem. One way is to create a special adult organization to 
care for the work for youth, generally organized on a county 
or territorial basis; the second is to attach the work to some 
existing organization. 


ADULT MEMBERSHIPS IN LOCAL COMMUNITIES 


The above statement ignores differences among the agencies 
in announced policy and constitutional method, and somewhat 
simplifies the facts as to formal adult organization. The reason 
for not carrying the study into more exact discrimination on 
this point was as follows: 





1 There are of course many spontaneous organizations of youth, revealing 
its genius for and need of group recognition and discipline. These, though 
sometimes encountered in the field investigation, were, however, outside of 
the scope of the study, 

82 


HOW COMMUNITIES MAKE WORK THEIR OWN — 83 


Almost nowhere in local communities was there found a body 
of adult members which was self-conscious and continuously 
active. Of financial subscribers, who professed interest in the 
agencies’ work, there were plenty. Frequently they were tech- 
nically members. But their existence made no discernible prac- 
tical difference as between the agency which professed to have 
them and the one which did not. The vital factors in the sit- 
uation were always (a) the youth group, (b) the small number 
of voluntary leaders, officers and active workers, (c) the pro- 
fessional worker or executive, and then either the general 
supporting public or some particular sponsoring agency. The 
attitude of the subscribers usually was: “I suppose I belong. 
I pay.” But of further duties or privileges they knew nothing. 

To the above statement a few exceptions are to be noted, 
especially in a county or two where adult activities or “com- 
munity work” had received some development. There were 
also independent “Y’s” in several of the small cities studied, 
with their members and membership privileges; but with these 
exceptions adult membership presented nothing tangible.? 


2 The failure of the study to find more vital significance in adult member- 
ship has been somewhat challenged by some of the agencies. A formal 
criticism of the report by Miss Henrietta Roelofs, Executive of the Rural Com- 
munities Department of the National Board of the Young Women’s Christian 
Association, February 21, 1925, states the matter as follows: “A slight recog- 
nition is given to the fact that the Girl Reserves are a part of a larger 
membership organization, locally and nationally, but the objective study re- 
vealed so little evidence of the vitality of this membership (except for 
finance cultivation) that it seemed legitimate to disregard it for the purposes 
of this study. We agree that in certain county and district Associations, 
the Association might be described as girls’ club work, but we are inclined 
to believe that the relation of our adolescent work to the adult work is so 
vital that to ignore it might lead to erroneous deductions. This relation 
conditions the program of the youth movement and in particular does it 
condition the educational process, 


“Even though these ideas are on paper more than in practice, the fact that 
we can see a great advance in the practice during the very short period of 
our life in rural areas gives us hope that the ideas are valid and will grow. 
For that reason, does not the relation of the Young Women’s Christian 
Association youth groups to the indigenous institutions and to the community 
itself take on a different character than the relation of the... to the in- 
digenous agencies?” 

The author of the report can only answer that on the whole and up to 
date he does not think it does, though it may possibly do so in the future. 
It is true, however, that the Young Women’s Christian Association has the 
largest proportion of unsponsored local organizations. This doubtless re- 
flects its effort to develop and depend on its own adult members, 


84 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


RELATION TO EXISTING COMMUNITY 
ORGANIZATIONS 


Even in territory under most intensive supervision, where 
agencies have built up complete machinery of their own with 
distinct local adult memberships, they are tied into the existing 
institutions of the community in many ways. Where, on the 
other hand, intensive supervision is absent, the local units of 
the agencies are in the main subsidiary interests and activities 
of churches, schools and community clubs. This section pre- 
sents the results of a detailed investigation of their relation- 
ships with such local organizations. 

From the standpoint of the investigation the significant thing 
is not whether a local unit has or has not the formal sponsor- 
ship of some community agency to the extent that it is chartered 
or officially recognized in such relationship. The vital question 
is whether the unit is identified in the minds of the community 
with a local agency. The community knows that it is an ex- 
pression of a national organization, and is acquainted with its 
special activities, its personal leadership and most influential 
supporters; but does the community at the same time think of 
the local unit as belonging or appertaining to some one of its 
own institutions? 

This criterion has to be adopted rather than that of formal 
sponsorship, because, while some of the agencies generally seek 
to have their units formally adopted by local institutions, others 
do not. 

The problem of the field investigators in seeking a vital 
definition of sponsorship is shown in the following illustration. 
The rural Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Asso- 
ciations are largely related to high-school students. Two very 
dissimilar situations with respect to the school as an institution 
may, however, present themselves. The “Hi Y” or Girl Re- 
serves may be recognized by the administration as one of its 
own school activities. Room may be made for it in the school 
building and an hour granted it on the school schedule. Con- 
tinuous publicity may be given it, and leadership and facilities 
furnished, and it may publicly receive official backing. Or it 


HOW COMMUNITIES MAKE WORK THEIR OWN — 85 


may merely be tolerated because it is a well-intended effort, 
because the community expects the school to back constructive 
movements for young people and because this is a free country 
anyhow. 

The community understands such distinctions very well in- 
deed. In the one case, the school is the sponsor of the local 
unit, no matter whether the concept of sponsorship is admitted 
or not. In the other, it is not sponsor, although its relation is 
still specific and important. 

Most of the local units of the agencies are identified in the 
minds of their communities with some established local organi- 
zation in one or more of three ways: (1) by meeting in its 
building; (2) by habitually looking to it for leadership; or 
finally (3) by formal or virtual sponsorship. 


PLACES OF MEETING 


Only 6.5 per cent. of all units own or control buildings of 
their own. These are chiefly “Y” buildings in the larger 
centers classified by the report as rural, or else inexpensive 
Scout cabins, Churches and school houses furnish meeting 
places for virtually two-thirds of the total, and private homes 
for one-tenth. The Camp Fire Girls show the greatest tend- 
ency to meet in private homes. Because so many of their local 
organizations are school groups the two Christian Associations 
make relatively larger use of school plants, but about 40 per 
cent. of Young Men’s Christian Association and Boy Scout 
units meet in churches.* Public or semi-public buildings, other 
than church and school, provide for somewhat more than one- 
tenth of the total groups. In a small number of cases units of 
other organizations meet in Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion or Young Women’s Christian Association buildings. 


3 Table XLVIII. The above data for the rural units in territory studied 
may be compared with the report of housing of all Boy Scout troops in 1921 
(Twelfth Annual Boy Scout Report, p. 140). The distribution of places of 
meeting among those most frequently reported was: Home, 2.3 per cent.; 
community hall or semi-public building, 6.4 per cent.; public building, 11.6 per 
cent.; school, 20.5 per cent.; church, 50 per cent. It is interesting that the 
church is more largely used in the total work of the Boy Scouts than it is in 
the rural work. 


86 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


This almost universal dependence of rural work for youth 
upon indigenous organizations for its housing and facilities 
emphasizes its characteristic lack of equipment and the strength 
of its relationship to the community; but as a result of this 
dependence obvious problems frequently arise out of the de- 
structiveness of youth and the inappropriateness of the avail- 
able buildings for the kind of activities involved. 


LEADERS 


According to local testimony, 38 per cent. of the local leaders 
are not specifically identified with any particular organization 
in their respective communities, The rest are popularly under- 
stood to hold their positions as representatives of some foster- 
ing organization. Thus a Scout troop may meet in a church 
but not actually or ostensibly draw its scoutmaster from the 
church. Generally, however, leadership is traceable to some 
recognized source of major responsibility and interest. About 
one-fourth of all leaders are locally understood to be from 
church sources and one-third from school sources. Naturally 
the agencies which try to develop adult membership organiza- 
tions of their own are less inclined to take a leader popularly 
associated with some already existing organization. In smaller 
places the Boy Scouts now strongly tend to develop “community 
troops” which try to emphasize their independence from the 
limitations of existing agencies.* 


SPONSORSHIP 


Only 32 per cent. of all local units are not under any locally 
recognized sponsorship by other local organizations, either 
formally or in popular understanding. Church sponsorship 
is more frequent than acknowledged church leadership, but less 
frequent than the use of the church as a meeting place. About 
one-third of all local units are known as “church” groups. The 
proportion of these was found rapidly increasing with the 
Young Men’s Christian Association. Acknowledged school 


4Table XLIX. 


HOW COMMUNITIES MAKE WORK THEIR OWN 87 


sponsorship is 17 per cent. of the total, being much less fre- 
quent than school leadership or the use of the schoolhouse as 
a meeting place. This is easily explained as the result of the 
hesitancy of the school, as a public institution, to commit itself 
formally to any non-traditional educational activity. 

Commercial clubs, men’s service clubs (Rotary, Kiwanis, 
etc.) and lodges appear as minor sponsoring agencies, but much 
less frequently as furnishing personal leadership or as places 
of meeting. 

Lodges, which are very frequent in rural communities, often 
have their own junior degrees or departments and are thus not 
given to much patronage of the agencies under discussion. 
Women’s clubs do not appear to have functioned as sponsors 
of girls’ work as frequently as might have been expected.’ 
Some of them substitute their own forms of junior organi- 
zation. 

By these several means of attachment to adult local organiza- 
tions, boys’ and girls’ organizations constituting units of 
national agencies have attempted to acquire, and have been 
brought into, community standing. Most of them, as has been 
seen, originated from influences already existent within the 
communities. These are some of the ways in which they have 
actually naturalized themselves and become part of the com- 
munity habit and tradition. 


PROPERTY OF COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS 


Somewhat similar phenomena reflect the naturalization of 
county organizations of the character-building agencies in their 
headquarters communities. Equipment for rural work on a 
county or district basis is characteristically simple for all the 
agencies. It consists typically of an office of one or two rooms, 
the very few exceptions being occasional Young Men’s Chris- 
tian Association local buildings or Young Women’s Christian 
Association cafeterias, rest rooms and girls’ homes.° 

Cooperation, amounting to strong approval and quasi-spon- 


5 Table LII. 
6 Table L. 


88 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


sorship or formal support, is evidenced in frequent provision of 
offices on semi-philanthropic terms, either by public or by other 
social agencies, the latter frequently being a town or city branch 
of the same national organization to which the unit assisted 
belongs. 

Camping is the single function generally provided with some 
equipment. Camp property is quite generally controlled by the 
agencies in their own names, but most often is leased or shared 
with other counties or districts rather than owned or operated 
separately.’ 

With the exception of those for camping, the facilities used 
are almost always either those of sponsoring organizations, or 
public facilities, such as school gymnasiums or parks and play- 
grounds. 

SUMMARY 


In order to give substantial local expression to organized 
work for youth, its control is uniformly placed in adult hands. 
Though actively functioning local memberships were so rarely 
found as to be negligible, in nearly one-third of the local units 
special groups of leaders and backers had developed in local 
communities without recognized attachment to any existing 
organization. In more than two-thirds of the cases, however, 
some indigenous organization actually fosters and is regarded 
as primarily responsible for the youth-group. This relationship 
includes both formal sponsorship as officially practiced by some 
agencies and virtual adoption which is the frequent practice of 
others. Of the fostering and sponsoring agencies the church 
and school are chief. Through such relationships communities 
habitually make work bearing national labels their own. 


DIFFICULTIES AND PROBLEMS 


(1) How can sponsorship avoid sectarianism and competi- 
tion? It is an obvious advantage to get some strongly in- 
digenous expression of community life to become responsibly 
related to character-building work with boys and girls. But 
this relationship has certain weaknesses as well as obvious 
strength. It is notorious that many of the organizations of 


7 Table LI. 


HOW COMMUNITIES MAKE WORK THEIR OWN _ 89 


small communities are bitterly competitive. If a sponsoring 
agency appeals to only part of the community (as in the 
case of a sectarian church or rival lodge), being under its 
auspices may exclude some of the boys or girls whom the 
national agency most desires to reach. 

The agencies have often been made aware that their local 
partners are using them divisively—not in the interest of the 
boys and girls of the community but merely to get a local 
advantage for one institution over against another. For this 
reason all have a proper aversion for narrow sponsorship, 
especially in small communities. Some do not officially recog- 
nize sponsorship at all, and all feel the burden of the problem 
of how to get into the local community without being part 
of its petty rivalries. 

(2) Is the difficulty solved by the organization of special 
constituencies? Some of the agencies argue stoutly that it 
is part of their service to such divided communities to or- 
ganize adult units bearing their own label, but with a com- 
munity-wide point of view, which will conduct the work on 
broad and non-sectarian lines. Of course, this is exactly 
what many a denominational church argues. The study 
simply did not find communities—except occasional small 
ones—accepting this theory. The typical reaction was to 
regard the new national organization as just another rival 
interest. While all forms of control of the work from out- 
side the community were now and again resented, the effort 
of a national agency to promote a functioning adult mem- 
bership was most fundamentally objected to.® 

(3) Even if the last statement is true, may not a national 
agency need to create a formal and highly organized special 
constituency in order to insure the quality of its results? A 
church, for example, that holds that it possesses the only 
truth whereby men may be saved, generally feels justified in 
pressing in wherever it can, no matter what the consequence 
to communities. Some of the agencies take very seriously the 
subtler differences and alleged superiorities discussed in the 
Preface; and while none would admit to holding the theory 
just illustrated, some are keenly convinced of the very great 
importance of their particular vision of life in behalf of 
youth. One of the deepest issues encountered by the study 
is how to adjust such tendencies to the existing facts and 
ideals of indigenous community development. How rural 
communities and national agencies can agree to work to- 
gether is still largely an unsolved problem. 


8 See Chapter IX, p. 130. 


CHAPTER V, Continued 


TABLES 


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91 


TABLE XLIX—SOURCES OF LEADERSHIP OF 382 LOCAL 
UNITS OF THE AGENCIES 


Per Cent. Distribution by Source of Leadership 


Agency and Type 
of Supervision 

bf, ean ay Sea Peer 
(Intensive) 

Boy Scouts 
Intensive 
Non-Intensive 

Y.W.C.A. 
Intensive 
Non-Intensive 


Girl Scouts ; 
(Non-Intensive ) 


eeoerevees ee eee 
eevee eee eee ds 


eoreesve ee eens 


Camp Fire Girls 
Total 


ever eere 


ey 


ees eee e seve 


2 
Baa) VS eh Bel ce 
Ste ae y Puke era ee 
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pawn Ol aa hdd) bohen OO 
136 346 118 493 29 
72 208 i111 667 14 
CL SOD IDR eT gS 
BB. 4nde S00) 34.4 411 
77 78 493 390 13 
TEV An) SES OO OD 
42 262 381 357 00 
42 143 405 452 00 
382 236 348 385 13 


w Outside 
“N Community 


Other 


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S 


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TABLE L—TENURE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEADQUARTERS 
OF 62 COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Agency 
Boy 
Y.M.C.A. Y.W.C.A. Scouts 


Tenure 
Number of organizations reporting ... 28 14 
Headquarters 
Rented commercially.) feo ede 11 1 
Shared with unrelated social agency 5 1 
Shared with related social agency .. 7 6 
PravGruwiy Pulser fou cele te cl 1 4 
PAVE TIOTIGI EL wig Gc oie led eT UY oie 4 Vs 


* Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE LI—TENURE OF CAMP PROPERTY OF 60 COUNTY* 
ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Agency 
Boy 
Y.M.C.A. YW.C.A. Scouts 


Variety of Tenure 


Number of organizations reporting 


Camp property 
Owned 


Tenure unknown 
No camp property 


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ese eae 


28 12 
Rte warn 20 


COD So 
RSD QE © 


© Includes comparable district organizations. 


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15 
i 
6 
i 
1 
5 


Total 


62 


Total 


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HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


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CHAPTER VI 
LOCAL LEADERS OF BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ WORK 


As a result of an intensive rural survey of Worcester 
County, Mass. (one of the units of this study), the field in- 
vestigator, Rev. C. O. Gill, recorded “a general agreement that 
the lack of efficient [local] leadership is the one and only 
serious difficulty’ of organized work for boys and girls, This 
verdict is abundantly confirmed by testimony from all parts of 
the country. Leadership is everywhere emphasized as the key 
to the situation. 

Both the beginnings of the local work and its subsequent 
on-going involve a constant process of action and reaction be- 
tween individuals and organizations. Half the existing units 
were originated by individuals. Two-thirds of them are now 
sponsored by local organizations. This manifestly implies a 
frequent unloading of responsibility from the former to the 
latter. To be the initiator of movements is a natural role of 
the individual. It is true that one who “starts something for 
boys [or for girls]’’ sometimes acts in a supposed representa- 
tive capacity. On the other hand, even when one has suc- 
ceeded in securing a sponsoring organization, it is frequently 
little more than camouflage for a one-man interest. What 
sponsorship generally means is responsibility for finding a 
leader on whom the real burden may be placed, and who will 
stand for it. The total impression of field observations is that 
organizational responsibility is somewhat lightly held. The 
tenacity and propulsive energy of a single man or of a small 
group—frequently operating in spite of organizational inertia 
—are the real secrets of the existence and continuance of most 
of the work. This simply reflects the nature of social processes 
in small communities and perhaps elsewhere, peculiarly when 

93 


94 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


the local work is the result of the permeation of communities 
by ideas, and when there is no close territorial organization of 
any national agency with intensive supervision. 

In either case, it touches the very heart of the national effort 
to help rural boys and girls to ask what sort of people are avail- 
able, and who actually do undertake voluntary leadership in this 
work, 


LEADERSHIP AS ORGANIZED BY THE AGENCIES 


On the background of such-inherent situations, national 
agencies come in with schemes of organization. All agree in 
the sound theory that the sanction of their work in communi- 
ties is, that it is in the hands of local volunteers and is essen- 
tially the expression of their purpose and sense of responsi- 
bility. All recognize three types of organization of volunteers: 
(1) the territorial executive body—county or other areal cen- 
tral committee—to which the employed executive is primarily 
responsible and which centralizes authority within the area; 
(2) local committees responsible for the work in the several 
communities or for a single unit in a community (e.g., Scout 
Troop Committee) ; (3) local group leaders actually in charge 
of organized groups of boys and girls. To these some of the 
agencies in some areas, as has been noted, add a fourth group; 
that of local adult members. Except, however, as already in- 
cluded in the three previous classes, these members, except in 
a very small number of cases, have neither specific duties nor 
privileges and are essentially nothing more than enrolled finan- 
cial supporters. 

The investigation therefore limits itself to the first three 
classes, 


LOCAL COMMITTEES 


These are groups held officially responsible for the work in 
the several communities. They have an average of five mem- 
bers each. One-third meet irregularly or never. About one- 
sixth meet monthly (ten or twelve times a year) ; the rest less 


LOCAL LEADERS OF BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ WORK 95 


frequently, most often holding quarterly meetings.* Field 
study impresses one primarily with the very nominal character 
of the functions of these committees. A typical report reads: 
“Local committees in this county are very unstable and meet 
most irregularly.” The facts would seem to be that individual 
assumption of responsibility on the one hand (frequently under 
the persuasion of county executives), and sponsorship by agen- 
cies on the other, are so widespread that the local committee, 
especially in smaller communities, seems a fifth wheel. Prac- 
tical relationships are too informal to demand such a com- 
mittee. This is not to forget that in exceptional cases group 
responsibility of a very keen and genuine sort is thus expressed. 
Nevertheless, the investigation cannot avoid the conclusion that 
—except as it reflects organizational sponsorship—the local 
committee is not an effective device. 


VOLUNTEER GROUP LEADERS 


The man behind the machine and the real hero and burden- 
bearer of the local situation in organized work for boys and 
girls is the group leader. Not infrequently he is himself the 
initiator of the work. 

The following paragraphs summarize the characteristics of 
such group leaders as statistically discovered.” 


AGE OF VOLUNTEER WORKERS 


The typical unpaid leader of the local boys’ and girls’ or- 
ganizations is relatively young, 75 per cent. of the total classi- 
fying being below forty years of age. But there are nearly 
as many leaders of over sixty as there are of those under 





1 Table LIV. 

2A total of 488 cases of volunteer workers was studied from these view- 
points, somewhat less than this total reporting on some of the points con- 
sidered. 

This number constitutes a large sample of those directly in charge of 
organized groups and activities and comprehended under various terms, as 
‘leaders,’ ‘“‘scoutmasters,’ “captains,” “advisors,” etc. Both principals and 
assistants are included within these classes, but members of local committees 
or county boards of direction who are not directly in charge of community 
or group work are excluded. 


96 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


twenty. Women leaders average younger than men leaders. 
The Boy Scouts have the largest proportion of mature leaders. 
These distinctions are shown in greater detail in Table LILI. 


TABLE LIII—DISTRIBUTION BY AGE OF 488 UNPAID 
WORKERS OF THE AGENCIES 


Per Cent. Distribution by Years of Age 


> 
S SS 
on © 
See cena ree Ons Peedi br Y EW. foo Ene 
eat ee Da Veh p eh ge EIN Whitin al dacs) So 
Agency 9 Scy Pol Sy al i BR) bea Sele es ee 
Y.M.CA. .. 125.72 19.2. 20.8518:4.11.2)5.6 7:2 40-08540. 16.1005 
Boy Scouts .-211' 0.5 11.9 185-213 175: 104. 9:3$)38235 3000 
ViwW.C As 66°°78. 1.30 29:5 282) 140 47 7.7 895267007 0 0.2 ee 
Girl Scouts. 39 2.6 33.3 15.3 282 128 2.6 2.6 0.0 2.6 0.0 0.0 100.0 
Camp Fire 
Girls 35 2.9 42.9 11.4 17.1 11.4 86 0.0 5.7 0.0 0.0 0.0. 100.0 
Total 488 2.7° 20:5 19,9: 19.7 13.5, $8.0°736'°3.5 1.8240 4eree 


More than one-half of all leaders studied were at least college 
graduates, and including college undergraduates and normal 
school graduates nearly two-thirds have had some higher edu- 
cation. There are more boys’ leaders with only slight educa- 
tion than there are girls’ leaders.*® 

This very exceptional showing, educationally speaking, is 
largely owing to the fact that nearly half of all volunteer 
leaders are drawn from the professional classes.* Educators 
and ministers lead, but educators furnish as many volunteers as 
all other professions combined. Girls’ groups find many 
leaders in home-making wives and mothers. Only 5.8 per cent. 
of all leaders of boys are farmers.® 


TIME GIVEN TO VOLUNTEER SERVICE 


Over 55 per cent. of all leaders reporting spend from five 
to fourteen hours a month in their voluntary tasks. Five to 
nine hours is most frequent with leaders of the two Christian 





8 Table LV. 
4 Table LVI. 
5 Table LVII. 


LOCAL LEADERS OF BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ WORK 97 


Associations, and ten to fourteen hours with the other three 
agencies.° 

One-third of the leaders reporting had been in service less 
than one year, and about one-fifth more had served less than 
two years, while only 14 per cent. had served as long as five 
years.” Such brief tenure is partly explainable by the notori- 
ously short residence of ministers and teachers in a community ; 
but also it doubtless correlates with the extreme recency of most 
of the present work. 


CENTRAL TERRITORIAL COMMITTEES 


Central territorial committees have an average membership 
of sixteen, sometimes running as high as thirty. Often they 
are selected on the basis of one representative from each major 
community in the county or comparable area. 

There is noticeable contrast between central committeemen 
and group leaders, in that the former are older and socially 
more influential. This is strikingly illustrated in the occupa- 
tional contrast between the two groups. While the professional 
vocations furnish nearly half the group leaders, they furnish 
but one-fourth of the central committeemen, who are drawn 
rather from the ranks of executives or of men occupying in- 
dependent positions in industry and business. Such men let 
preachers and school men do the work, while they lend the dig- 
nity, raise the money, and keep the power. There are, however, 
more farmers among them than among group leaders.* The 
central committees of organizations for girls are drawn from 
the wives of the type of men just described, though naturally 
with a considerable proportion of independent professional 
women. 

In counties adjoining cities, central committees in charge of 
rural work are preponderantly commuters whose business in- 
terests are urban. ‘The characteristic place for their meetings 
is some city skyscraper. They stand for the goodwill, and for 
the sense of responsibility, that undertake to project into the 

6 Table LVIII. 


7 Table LIX, 
8 Table LX, 


98 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


country what the city thinks good for it; and they are not 
always particularly representative of indigenous tendencies. 
Sometimes they definitely register a philanthropic attitude of 
one social group to another. 

Somewhat similar trends express themselves in rural coun- 
ties definitely centralized about small cities or well-developed 
county seats. 

All the above facts are relatively familiar and simply show 
the character of the resources of small communities in natural 
leadership and available volunteer work. 


SUMMARY 


Calculating roughly upon the basis of the sample territory, the 
five agencies must have mobilized a force of some 16,000 vol- 
unteer group leaders of boys and girls backed by perhaps 33,000 
local committeemen here and there in rural America. ‘This is 
no mean achievement. The members of this volunteer force 
are typically drawn from the best material of such communi- 
ties. While few exhibit conspicuous talent in their work, they 
are select men and women by age, education and occupation. 
But they give only a little time to the work and that for a little 
while. The lack of a permanent and deep-rooted supply of 
local leaders is the most serious and conspicuous of the limiting 
factors from which the work surfers. 


SOME ULTIMATE QUESTIONS 


(1) Is this showing a sample not only of what the agencies 
suffer but of what rural civilization suffers? Is there any 
solution to the problem of rural social leadership? Just as 
the supply of boys and girls is short in the smaller rural com- 
munities, so is that of available talent for such interests. 
The professional leaders of the most indigenous agencies 
are largely nonresident—as witness the rural ministry—or 
pitiably transient, as is the school-teacher. 

(2) If rural communities cannot supply resident leader- 
ship for their better-established and presumably more im- 
portant interests, can they hope to do so for group organi- 
zations of youth? 


LOCAL LEADERS OF BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ WORK = 99 


(3) What are the chances of giving technical training to 
such volunteers as there are? ‘The training processes which 
the agencies have devised to meet the case were often elabo- 
rate and admirable; but the infancy of most of the local 
organizations studied made statistics on the subject impos- 
sible; while the brief period of service of most of the vol- 
unteers had made it generally impossible to use the training 
processes with any thoroughness. One comes away from 
actual contact with volunteers with the highest appreciation 
of their purpose and goodwill, but with great uncertainty as 
to whether the agencies are going to be able to give ade- 
quate training to those who are not already professionally 
educated. Some of the older county organizations show strik- 
ing cases of the development of personal character and ca- 
pacity for leadership on the part of non-professional volun- 
teers through a series of years; but most of these successes 
were found in populous suburban counties where the smaller 
communities have been enriched by the overflow of culture. 
Unquestionably any successful organization that lasts long 
enough can get some such results. So far, however, the 
good examples of the training of non-professional volunteers 
are relatively few. 

(4) Is it not evident that there should be great economy 
in the use of local leaders, not only as among the agencies, 
but as between the older and the newer organizations? Can 
the small community hope, for example, to man the Sunday 
school and the boy- and girl-groups with separate leader- 
ship? Can leadership afford to waste itself on oversmall 
competitive groups? Must not ability to work with boys and 
girls be made available for both boys and girls when it is so 
scarce in the smaller places? Is the sectarian use of leader- 
ship just or generous? 


CuHapter VI, Continued 
TABLES 


TABLE LIV—MEMBERSHIP AND MEETINGS PER YEAR OF 
LOCAL COMMITTEES OF THE AGENCIES 
Agency and Type of Supervision 
. Cam 
Fire 


Boy Girl 
Scouts Y.W.C.A.Scouts Girls Total 


Y.M.C.A. 
o oy zy oI 4 4 He cee 
vo cents ley pg ee ey) Pepeegh eyes ney, we 
No.of Committees 52 0 79 GFt eco vice lA Zi isa 94 
No. Reporting 
Membership ... 34 0 74 LOS GAG NS ne Gok inate 89 
Membership ..... 133. O37 yee, 4a econ a/ wee be 781 438 
No. Meetings per 
Year 
Los one 3 0) 2 Q 6 3 0 0 1 0 6 4 
ny Gaeta He Ge Zi 7 AMO ane 0 1 0 9 in 
6 SCARS B 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 
Ate Wa cee 6 0 5 2 0 0 0 0 LA 2 
Saver ore te 1 0 5 0 1 0 1 0 5 1 
Gian Eee Se 1 0 1 4 0 1 0 0 2 5 
Th OR ET, Oil 0 Ona 0 0 0 0 0 0 
SY mite tiller tl aaah 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 
Oe atk hear Uae 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 
Leese eae 6 0 2 3 5 Z 1 0 13 6 
Le SRR Omne0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 
ALIS Bip lod pry: 0 0 5 1 8 1 ~ 1 13 8 
Nonetuhineae 2 0 9 re 0 1 1 0 11 9 
Frrégular’. ee. 10 0 11 22 1 fs Pd 1 22 27 
7A ECS SMP oo: 0 0 1 OOO 0 0 0 1 0 
fd: Ee a kee OMe 1 1} 0 1 1 0 1 3 
Not reported .. 21 0 26 15 8 3 3 0 hh 21 


100 


TABLES 101 


TABLE LV—DISTRIBUTION BY DEGREE OF EDUCATION OF 
476 UNPAID WORKERS OF THE AGENCIES 


Degree of Education 


Sy Shs 
aso os at 
9 %S 
s os a & 
A S = & S BS 72 = & = & 5 = 
SiR cuore a wnt 48S con cd Tig Sem se waa 
ey Ty SUL ie gee ld Oy ey iS Ny ry id Bos 
Agency %o % Jo %o Like Ae ay alee dehy Le % 
eV AS FN ia es 142. 92, 16,9 0.7 OOF USS.Olr rt aay aie Lee 
Boy scouts: . oss. 176 S10 Sie 29.5 3.4 Daeeoo MOA hE OO 0 
eee ere. USA 14 27.0 2.091300 o0.7et Alar, de 
PSI OCOULSINs.«.. «'s D/A 24G wi LUl LD 2a.an oe eens LOL 
amp tiresGirls., 84/702. 021.3 314,9"> 923-4 3612) 0.0 ned 100.0 
ota eae’ ss A476) 7G 2h! O50 01d 45.8 Oyen ao OUO 


TABLE LVI—DISTRIBUTION BY PROFESSIONAL OCCUPATION 
OF 350 UNPAID WORKERS OF THE AGENCIES 


Professional Occupation 


Other 

Agency Ministry Educational Professions Total 
Heal Ba ok paged ee PA a Se 18 69 12 99 
POOLS Ph Aah cae ots oo 2 62 42 20 124 

RU ORAIA SOV Saree os Wide. dy ouch ys 80 111 oe 223 
WN Aa tes gee et. cg dens 0 70 5 75 
ROC OULS hls cah a vile, «wie 4 0 19 4 23 
Manpirire Girls .). 0). 56. +0 0 26 3 29 

PROCATARSILIS byw oiais cates weve als 0 Alo 12 127 


Total Agencies ......... 80 226 44 350 


102 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE LVII—DISTRIBUTION BY OCCUPATION OF 703 
UNPAID WORKERS OF THE AGENCIES 


Per Cent. Distribution 


amp 
Boy Girl Fire Total 
Y.M.C.A. Scouts V.W.C.A. Scouts Girls Agencies 
Number of cases .... 190 275 120 61 S7 703 
Occupation 
Agriculture (....... 8.4 4.0 0.0 3.3 0.0 4.1 
Extraction of min- 
Cr alsa oye ae Hues 0.0 1.8 
Manufacturing and 
mechanical vo,.0.0% 12.1 18.2 
Transportation) a. 
PL PACE ec Meee wees 
Public service ..... 
Professional ....... 
Domestic and per- 


on) 
a) 
2 
o 
—) 
N 


Sod 
iy) 
pak 
> 
So 2S 
SS — 
— 
00 OO 
— 
SONOrS 
AN 


jad 
— 
on 
hs 


cin NT} 


Nor 
SHON Boe 


[Sal 
mOONin BiANnt 
a 
Ov 
we ww 
PODER NOOO 
OWRD NOOOD 
on 
A 


DO 
SERA Nooo 


Housewite (2) akan. 
Stidentiy fe ace wee 


bet NOW © 

onrohe 

ONDANY UOSCS 
— 

bet CO UT 

SOON Oe OO pet peed 


| 
: 


med 
ae) 
ae | 
oO 


LOtal. sur sinecwany 100.0 100.0 1000 100.0 100.0 


TABLE LVIII—DISTRIBUTION BY HOURS PER MONTH GIVEN 
TO WORK OF THE AGENCIES BY 257 UNPAID WORKERS 


Per Cent. Distribution by Years of Age 


w 

aA OG Sb on pM Pa = es gt es 2 eee 

eels ™~ si Oa (ORD, > | 2 es eS eae 

S38 ro) AN | i | | | ! Sy 5 

Agency Ot) eee A Ch tsa eh P| 
pa OMT NET Ra ie 59 1'20.3 0.01) 26.0. (00) 934 17) 7a) O.0ea ee 
Boy {Scouts §..9103- 907.8) 204" 25.3 18.5) 11.6 8.7) TO OfreS eee 
VW. CAL Bare N28 i145) 939.8 017.90 0717. FLOOR OLE LO 
Girl) Scouts: seWi31) | 3/24 29,0 > 35.5!) 59:70" 6,50, 9.7 0 oe Oe ae 
Camp Fire Girls’ -36) 16.7, 60.5333" 56°56 257 0000) ‘Sis eat 


ae 
° 

cr 

ob) 

— 
Le) 
qn 
“NI 
js 
i) 
— 
bh 
OO 
oO 
RQ 
NI 
nN 
— 
p— 
ios) 
NJ 
io.) 
ON 
bo 
— 
Oo 
— 
a) 
Sal 
= 
S 
S&S 


TABLES 103 


TABLE LIX—DISTRIBUTION BY YEARS OF SERVICE DE- 
VOTED TO THE WORK OF THE AGENCIES BY 425 UN- 
PAID WORKERS 


Per Cent. Distribution by Number of Years 


No. 
of Under 10 and 
Agency Cases 1 yi 2 SA A als Giro aay ver LOUIE 
ens tr l02 35.3) 20.6./17.00' 85, 4.9569. 2.0700"1.0700>2,9%100,0 
MtiveecOutsen1/5 204.1 214A! 119s 9.2" 3.97 4.6,/1 2) 4.073551 2.5.8 3100.0 
VEMVG wee FO ole LOL Geld O44, 2/2 ee OO er. O04 LATTA 100.6 
fritlsocotts. 34 32.4; 20.6°°23.5 14.7. 30°29 0.029 0040.0) 0.0,7100.0 
Camp Fire 
tig sees 407 09.0 19,9 716.5 211.6 (11.67 0,0' 6.0 10.0708 2:3% 2.39 100.0 


se en 


Total .... 425 329 21.9 15.5 111 4.5 4.0 09 24 24 09 35 100.0 


TABLE LX—DISTRIBUTION BY OCCUPATION OF MALE 
COUNTY COMMITTEEMEN AND OF LOCAL GROUP 


LEADERS 

Per Cent. Distribution of 
County Local 

Occupation Committeemen Group Leaders 
CPCS TES UM ERS ASS SL SR 10.5 5.8 
DM EES TT ait ROR, a Ra at Se Ht OD Bio a 0.0 1.1 
a CEUT Ga Ou as aaterclaiso ack «ia iiaie 64 20.4 15.7 
PEPE LATION Lees Sis icles aisles ms bis lens 0.0 Le 
er Abe emi es ce ake ne ise abe We Sod 14.8 
Per TeS aI Senne tae ue Ca ye Kaul oig its ot 28.1 48.0 
Berta EE VICES 1s ty ate ia ak sie hn eee 0.5 1.1 
ROIS CE VICE Moe oh Stoke oe is Givin ers ee ae 4.8 uz 
ieee peek oe ene S58 vel a ea g 0.0 4.3 
ACGME ee Cie i sees te ees 0.0 3.4 
BE CUCL OE ree fi chy Sule ee estas sates 0.0 0.4 
GLAM Roly ss or iis alee ohay onvienls has 100.0 100.0 


CHAPTER VII 
INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 


In the theory of territorial organization as defined in the 
manuals of the national agencies, there is assumed to be a 
definite localized unit with its members, officers, committees 
and systematic functions. This organization is related to the 
national agency in prescribed ways. It needs a territorial 
executive for its proper functioning and employs one. The 
national agencies try to secure and make available a body of 
properly trained and accredited men for these positions. 

The facts, as actually encountered on the field, prove that 
many of these territorial organizations are most nebulous, 
having indeed little reality apart from the presence and con- 
tinuous effort of a local territorial executive who is regarded 
as the representative of national headquarters. Most of them 
have no accustomed means of functioning, and do not function 
when without an executive; and in popular understanding and 
action when the executive is gone the organization is dead. 
Measures necessary to revive it after the prolonged lapse of 
executive leadership have most of the characteristics of new 
organization. In short, the executive is more truly a locally 
paid supervisor of the national parent agency than he is an 
independent executive of a local territorial organization. 

How far this unusual dependence is owing to the recent 
origins of most of the agencies is left for discussion with other 
problems at the end of the chapter. The paragraphs imme- 
diately following present data concerning this uniquely indis- 
pensable man, whose assumed values are taken for granted. 
He perpetuates, extends, directs and standardizes the work 
within his territory, and secures its financial support. The 


generalization on this point is based on the cases of seventy- 
104 


INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 105 


four county executives and assistant secretaries in the counties 
studied; fifty-eight men and sixteen women. 


CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TERRITORIAL 
EXECUTIVE 


The average executive of a county or comparable district is 
a well-trained person, from thirty to thirty-five years of age,’ 
who starts into his work on leaving college, or shortly after- 
ward.’ Half of the executives have had some technical educa- 
tion of the academic sort for the particular job they hold.* Just 
half are country bred.® They have had, on the average, from 
four to seven years of professional experience in the lines 
of their present work or of other closely allied work. Most 
of them have been on their present jobs only one or two years.’ 
The most representative salary for men is about $2,800; for 
women $1,800.° These are accounted good salaries by the 
communities that help to pay them, in the light of what other 
rural professional workers receive. The secretaries of the 
Young Men’s Christian Association (the only agency reporting 
on this point) tend to leave the rural work after about six 
years, either by transfer to some other phase of service or 
otherwise. 


DIFFERENCES AMONG AGENCIES 


The average age of male executives is nearly five years be- 
yond that of females. The maximum age with the former is 
fifty-one; with the latter forty. As to education, the Young 
Women’s Christian Association has the highest per cent., 
and the Young Men’s Christian Association the lowest per 
cent., of college graduates.” As is well known, the Young 


1 Table LXII. 

2 Table LXIII. 

8 Table LXIV. 

4Table LXV 

5 Table LXVI. 

6 Table LXVII. 

7 Table LXVIII. 

8 Table LXIX. 

9 For the two agencies for which approximately comparable data are avail- 
able, the showing based on the sample drawn from fifty-three counties almost 


106 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Men’s Christian Association and the Young Women’s Chris- 
tian Association have well-established training schools for pro- 
fessional workers. It is only natural therefore that they should 
show a higher proportion of executives with technical training 
for their positions. A further significant difference is that 
more of their workers have had long experience than have 
those of the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scout executives also show 
shorter average tenures; but this may be owing to the greater 
recency of the work in the area studied. 

As to environment, half of the Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
ciation and Boy Scout executives are country bred, to only 
one-third of Young Women’s Christian Association execu- 
tives. 

Boy Scout salaries are appreciably better than those of the 
other agencies. 

No data as to marital condition were secured except ee 
the Young Men’s Christian Association. Nearly all of its 
executives are married, and of these, four-fifths have children. 


OBSERVED TYPES 


Aside from such factual generalizations, and beyond such 
obvious differences as those between novices and experienced 
workers, certain clearly marked types, as determined by pro- 
fessional origins and previous experience, are evident. 

Of male executives, it is easy to distinguish— 


(1) the man trained primarily on the job—a volunteer who 
came up from the ranks and became a paid worker ; 





exactly agrees with that nationally reported in the case of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association, but shows fewer college men in the case of 
the Young Men’s Christian Association. It should be said that the categories 
in which the information was gathered are not absolutely identical and a re- 
interpretation of the data might possibly modify it in some respects. 


EDUCATION OF PAID COUNTY WORKERS OF TWO AGENCIES 


Degree of Education of Worker 


Vive AG YU Mica. 
Grammar High  Col- Grammar High Col- 
Item School School lege Total School School lege Total 
53) counties i515 os 0 1 12 13 3 10 21 34 


National Reports .. 0 2 27 29 0 26 100 126 


INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 107 


(2) the product of the agency training schools, a hand-made 
professional and specialist. 


Of male executives not to the manner born—and sometimes 
fitting into rural communities all the more readily because 
they have been previously associated with their indigenous 
agencies—are : 


(3) the former school man; (4) the ex-minister; and (5) the 
former business man. The characteristics and methods of all of 
these are often strongly stamped by their previous vocations. 


Of female executives one finds— 


(1) the girl recently out of college who has had a course or 
two in work for boys and girls. No corresponding male type was 
found in appreciable numbers; 

(2) the product of agency training schools or of technical 
schools for religious or social workers; 

(3) the former school-teacher, and 

(4) the woman who has been housewife and mother. This 
last type is more often found where the work involves the opera- 
tion of dormitories or headquarters buildings. 


About one-sixth of the executives had associates or execu- 
tive assistants. Among this number were found the begin- 
nings of specialized types like physical instructors, clerical or 
financial specialists, or secretaries devoting themselves to 
narrow age-groups. But five-sixths of the total number were 
“general practitioners” attempting to conduct the whole range 
of the functions of their respective organizations.”° 


WHAT THE PUBLIC THINKS OF THE WORKERS 


Public opinion rates the executives higher than it does the 
total value of the work, 88 per cent. of the verdicts of repre- 
sentative citizens being “excellent” or “good.” ** Complaints 
were sometimes softened by the recollection that the executive 
is frequently overburdened and does not have good backing. 


10 Table LXX. 
11 Table LXXI. 


108 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Weaknesses are generally specific, as, for example, “The Sec- 
retary is a poor financier.” No moral black sheep were found 
in the employ of any of the agencies. The average ability is 
high and the best very good. 


FUNCTIONS OF EXECUTIVES AS PROFESSIONAL 
SUPERVISORS 


Beyond the most general version of the executives’ work, 
as already indicated, it has four classes of regular and obvious 
functions: (1) supervision of. organized local groups under 
volunteer leaders—who have to be found, trained, kept at 
their work and in touch with and up to the standards of their 
respective agencies; (2) carrying on of general central func- 
tions, such as extension and promotion, the keeping of records 
and making of reports, financial administration, leadership 
training and usually the conduct of general gatherings such as 
conferences and camps; (3) occasional cooperative and service 
activities in local communities outside of organized group- 
work; (4) sometimes the management of some special service 
activity for the headquarters community, such as the manage- 
ment of a community building. 

So many of these functions are necessarily performed out of 
sight, or are beyond the notice of the casual observer, that 
one gets a certain shock from a statement of what the execu- 
tive’s work seems to the public. On the testimony of repre- 
sentative citizens throughout the communities studied, the 
Young Men’s Christian Association secretary is regarded most 
frequently as a public recreational leader. The Young 
Women’s Christian Association secretary is most characteristi- 
cally thought of as the person whose business it is to look after 
poor and bad girls. The Boy Scout executive is recognized as 
an executive and business agent rather than as one whose 
chief value lies in the field of personal relationships with boys. 

In general it is safe to say that those duties that are laid 
upon the executive by the national agency are less appreciated 
by communities than direct services rendered there. 

The field study found executives engaged in all phases of 


INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 109 


the tasks above outlined; but since it did not take actual job- 
records over a period of time, it is impossible to bring its ob- 
servations to any exact statement. The executives were con- 
cerned with such activities and problems as the earlier chapters 
of the report have presented. Some were just going about 
the business of organizing in new territory. Others were 
struggling with the results of past policies, of inadequate starts 
and ups and downs of fortune. Virtually all felt that the 
distinctive ideas and basic loyalties of their respective move- 
ments had been inadequately acquired by their constituencies. 
Many regarded the traditions of the people with whom they 
were working as narrow and reactionary. With scarcely an 
exception they were finding finances a perennial problem. A 
few were experiencing the collapse of their organizations and 
the bitterness of defeat and failure. 

Besides the ever-current need of developing local responsi- 
bility and preventing volunteers from slipping their tasks back 
upon the executive’s shoulders, the administrative problems 
with which they were most often engaged were: 

(1) How to tell what to do next. Performing, as they have 
to, a varied and largely unstandardized set of tasks, there 
was great lack of certainty among executives as to the rela- 
tive importance of the tasks, and there were many confes- 
sions of the danger of diffusing effort and “spreading out too 
thin.” 

(2) As has already been intimated, numerous cases were 
found where the executive felt that he had to give too much 
time to finances, and where the burden of financial responsi- 
bility was seriously impairing efficiency. 

(3) The quest for local teaders, and the effort to keep them 
in good heart and at their jobs, and to give them a little 
systematic training, were met with as pressing duties every- 
where. 

(4) Almost uniformly, except in the flush of first organi- 
zation, it was said that there must be the firmer establishment 
of existing work before expansion could be undertaken. Ex- 
ecutives felt driven by duties already laid upon them, and had 
little heart for attacking new fields while those already occu- 


110 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


pied so often threatened to lapse whenever the leaders’ backs 
were turned. 

(5) Dissatisfaction or revolt on the part of local units some- 
where in the field were occupying and troubling many execu- 
tives. 

In brief, the actual consciousness of the local executive is 
conditioned by his sense of limited personal strength and finan- 
cial support. He strives for certain technical excellences in 
the routine work he has to perform, and tries to improve the 
local or county-wide functions over which he presides. What- 
ever professed theory he may hold about the duty of reaching 
“the last boy in the county,” his actual standard of performance 
and of success varies about the average which he knows his 
predecessors or similar workers in other counties have achieved. 


HOW MUCH CAN ONE SECRETARY DO? 


An occasional secretary was found who did not regard as his 
primary duty that of organizing and maintaining local groups 
of boys and girls to carry out a recognized program. Group 
work was so much the most common form of activity, how- 
ever, as to yield the most nearly adequate basis of comparison. 

The average number of organized groups found in a county 
or equivalent supervisory district was eleven per agency. The 
tendency to find them chiefly in the larger and more accessible 
places has been discussed in a previous chapter. ‘The total is 
not specially impressive. It should be compared, however, 
with the total for unorganized territory. 

Where there is no intensive supervision by paid workers, 
the average range is from one group per county for the Young 
Men’s Christian Association to four for the Boy Scouts. This 
is as far as permeation is likely to go in a given territory. 
Where there is territorial organization with one paid worker, 
the range is from eight organized groups in the case of the 
Young Men’s Christian Association to fourteen for the Young 
Women’s Christian Association and sixteen for the Boy Scouts. 
Where there is more than one paid worker, the range is from 
eleven groups with the Young Men’s Christian Association and 


INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 111 


the Boy Scouts to fifteen with the Young Women’s Christian 
Association. (The Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls are not 
included in this report except in unsupervised territory.) For 
all agencies, nine is the average number of organized groups 
per county when there is but one worker per agency, and 
twelve is the average when there is more than one worker. A 
second worker adds 50 per cent. to the first one’s work thus 
measured.** But, taking the United States as a whole, there 
are about twenty-five distinguishable rural communities per 
county. 

The amount and reliability of volunteer assistance developed 
is of course partly dependent on the age of the work. This 
factor probably accounts largely for the circumstance that some 
county executives can oversee three or four times as many 
units as others. It must be added that some have three or four 
times as much capacity as others to get other people to work. 


SUMMARY 


In character, ability and educational equipment, the execu- 
tives who have been studied are better than the conditions 
under which they have to labor. Many evidences have been 
given of the imperfect and unstable adjustment of the national 
agencies to rural civilization. The data, on the other hand, 
strongly reenforce the popular verdict of representative citizens 
as interviewed: These are good men and women who cannot 
always make good in what is still an unstandardized experiment. 
This is not to say that their outlook and training cannot be 
improved. Some of the considerations which the problem of 
supervision involves follow: 


FURTHER QUESTIONS AND ISSUES 


(1) Can territorial organization of interests as narrow as 
those of individual agencies ever achieve vitality in rural 
areas as large as counties but with as little average social 
integration as counties have? 

Successful examples of such organization were indeed 


12 Table LXXII. 


112 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


found, but almost exclusively in urbanized regions. Ina few 
cases where the matter was pressed further, rather amusing 
evidence was found that the really responsible elements in 
such cases are preponderantly city people. This is shown in 
Table LXI. 


TABLE LXI—NUMBER OF COMMUTERS AND NON-COM- 
MUTERS ON CERTAIN COUNTY COMMITTEES OF TWO 


AGENCIES 
Members of County Committee 
Agency Commuters Non-Commuters 
North Bergen County, N. J., Boy Scout 
COUNCTIS RT Lee ies cae ee etc uit ae 18 10 
Bergen County, N. J., Young Men’s Chris- 
tian nc aaa Ae eT Lede eka abe 14 6 
Camden County, N. J., Young Men’s Chris- 
tian Associations, po vcs wise ste ere ntn sd acess Zh 0 
Scoutmasters 
Camden County, N. J., Boy Scout Coun- 
CULT es Bate eh code a Oe es ei 14 3 


Some of the reasons why territorial organization in strictly 
rural areas is difficult may be suggested: 

(a) Its ultimate units—the youth-groups—so frequently 
lapse as to communicate a sense of instability to the larger 
organization. 

(b) As hitherto conducted by the agencies, territorial or- 
ganization is generally without property, a visible center or 
material investment about which it might rally. 

(c) Its scattered membership (or supporting constituency) 
does not constitute a face-to-face group, like the membership 
of a local church or club. The majority of the members 
never meet, and little group loyalty results. 

(d) The territorial unit on which organization is based is 
often without unity. A county is frequently a political acci- 
dent, consisting of rival communities; and is not a natural 
basis of organization. 

(e) Local communities that want the work of any agency 
can get it by sporadic units, without territorial organization. 
They frequently have it in advance of organization and are 
not deprived of it by the lapse of organization. 

Some of these difficulties are perhaps irremediable; others 
could be avoided only by radical change of policy. All told, 
they seriously challenge the success of territorial organization 
quite apart from its financial costs, which are the theme of 
the next chapter. 


INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 113 


(2) Since territorial organization is so unstable, and since 
the executive is so largely a representative of a reénforcing, 
directing and morally supporting national movement, can 
he adequately take the standpoint of local communities? Will 
he not probably continue to regard himself, and to be re- 
garded, not as a local man but as an agent of an external 
process? 

(3) Even if the executive succeeds in profoundly identify- 
ing himself with the local field, is he not driven to do so 
narrowly in the interest of his own organization? Are the 
conditions of success and survival such that the average sec- 
retary can be really a community-minded man? Can one with 
such antecedents and working under such conditions lead 
communities to get away from their rivalries and divisions 
and really to unite in the common interest of boys and girls? 


CuHapter VII, Continued 
TABLES 


TABLE LXII—CLASSIFICATION BY SEX OF 74 PAID WORKERS 
OF FOUR AGENCIES 


Agency Male Female Total 
VeVi Give Tage hd antes baeteares 2 Ae 36 fe 36 
Bos Scouts oink. deh oe Waeneeree es ecteran os ae a 22 
NOW A Sry rand aldose Cee ee ea a aioe y 15 15 
Girl Scanits up cecs lee ea ee ae 1 1 

TOUT socio Care ee AG en ene ee 58 16 74 


TABLE LXITI~AGES OF 66 PAID WORKERS OF THREE 


AGENCIES 
Chief 
All Paid Workers County or District Executives 
Ages in Years Ages in Years 
No. of No. of 
Agency Cases Median Range Cases Median Range 
WAVE Guay Ncaenianaae 32 35 25-50 26 36 25-50 
Boy sScoutshae ees 22 33 23-51 19 33 23-51 
LW Goya ee ere 12 3l 23-40 11 30 23-38 


TABLE LXIV—DEGREE OF EDUCATION OF 68 PAID WORKERS 
OF THREE AGENCIES 


Chief County or District 


All Paid Workers i Executives 

Es polenta ete es su ees 
Agency 0 Coats cede SC) a ee OH HH GO & 
Y.MSGIAG a ae 3 10 21 34 3 8 17° ize 
Boy ‘Scoutseyic. sear ee 0 4 17 21 0 4 16 20 
YOAWiGAL ei eee 0 1 12 13 0 0 11 11 


TABLES. 115 


TABLE LXV—TECHNICAL EDUCATION OF 68 PAID WORKERS 
OF THREE AGENCIES 


Chief County or District 


All Paid Workers Executives 
Number Number 
Having Spe- Having Spe- 
No. of cial Academic No. of cial Academic 
Agency Cases Training Cases Training 
SL LGR hy OR A eae 34 21 28 19 
UTE Use ea 11 ag eg 21 4 20 4 
NG acs al a's ce wh Ce nad 13 8 11 7 


TABLE LXVI—EARLY ENVIRONMENT OF 49 PAID WORKERS 
OF THREE AGENCIES 


Chief County or District 


All Paid Workers Executives 
% 2 
e as CMe 7 TH A Jee 
Agency Est Be ba ae nee em AS Ss tte if 
RGA alidacs le 3 Tes See 3 3 22 14. Po 2 ce 2 8 21 
Boy Scouts ...... 7 ASS 1 15 GieZ 5 1 14 
PVE AEE SA aS EN wo LO Ab eee ee 1 12 A Bun ie 1 11 


TABLE LXVII—PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE OF 69 PAID 
WORKERS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Years of Age 


Chief County or District 


All Paid Workers Executives 
No. of No. of 
Agency Cases Median Range Cases Median 
RPIVEG CANS Vines, ayia > 0 34 Z Less than 1 to 24 28 9 
PROM TeOIES) Cit es aoe 21 4 Less than 1 to 25 20 4 
Cake detec av dog) LS 6 Less than 1 to 12 13 6 


TABLE LXVITI—LENGTH OF TIME IN PRESENT POSITION 
OF 70 PAID WORKERS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Years in Present Position 


Chief County or District 


All Paid Workers Executives 
No. o No. o 
Agency Cases Median Range Cases Median 
yh OF 34 2 Less than 1 to 17 28 3 
eee SCOUTS ces 21 1 Less than 1 to 8 20 1 


PAS See es 15 2 Less than 1 to 8 13 2 


116 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE LXIX—SALARIES OF 72 PAID WORKERS OF THREE 
AGENCIES 


Amount of Salary 
Chief County or Dis- 


All Paid Workers trict Executives 
No. o No. o 
Agency Cases Median Range Cases Median 
YA CA im Ack 35 $2,700 $1,800-$3,500 28 $2,725 
Oye OCOULS acne ey 21 2,750 2,000— 3,800 * 19 3,000 
BY OA Wy Bx, Reta Ley +5 1,800 1,500-— 2,300 13 1,800 


* Range for chief executives, Boy Scouts, $2,200-$3,800. 


TABLE LXX—CLASSIFICATION BY POSITION OF 74 PAID 
EXECUTIVES OF FOUR AGENCIES 


County * Executive 


Agency Chief Associate 
bg BOY Na tate CaN SARE ncdro th caddie th oe We Tte 29 7 
Boy: Scouts ct eee eee eee eye 20 2 
YW..CGrAY 6 i ee a a en 13 2 
Girl Scottsys) ih2 se baie an Gee eee oes 1 0 

T Otel 5 S328 Sse cae 6. ee Sn er & 63 11 


“Includes comparable district executives. 


TABLE LXXI—OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 
REGARDING THE ABILITY OF 51 PAID WORKERS OF 
THREE AGENCIES 


Distribution of Opinions About Workers 


No. of Paid 
Agency Workers Excellent Good Fair Poor Total 
YM CoAl Pe aoe 26 37 185 7 12 241 
Boy Scouts .0 7 bus 8 29 7 11 55 
YAW GAN eae 9 28 3 2 42 


TABLES 14 tg 


TABLE LXXII—NUMBER OF ORGANIZED UNITS OF THE 
AGENCIES IN COUNTIES WITH SPECIFIED NUMBER 
OF PAID WORKERS 


Number of Units Per County 
Total Number 


Agency and Workers of Units Median Range 
Dan LEREC Asics cas ks Dore es Bee etl 365 

DART WOL REL ont set pons oa ee eee es 1 

RUC AI WORKER 95 ac 2G Uctda dit. Hatha wis 7 1-24 

Units per paid worker when more than one 11 2-23 
PAT SCOULS fy) ons es hadic ic tote ge oe Oe ek 425 

PROT DAL WOLKert bial ws. Reece arabe 4 1-13 

Sie Dail WORKER )4o5 ve cig ieee ok eee ee 16 1-28 

Units per paid worker when more than one 11 10-24 
NEEM Cee ARO REST AAC EN Comm MEG RE mR te 250 

BORIC WULKEL ce nic on Ae whe Fa bai shte ate 2 1~ 9 

EU EeE na AVOTMOL) ool airs sree Sok ele wankers ' 414 9-19 

Units per paid worker when more than one 15 7-20 
MRE AETSCEMICS Mei use ssn oe ae te Gee Leis «eta Patt Se 128 

BarData WOLKEL Ss ca aoe Geis rats dai vols 3 1-16 
May ILesOiIrls Pusey ade ee eee ek 100 

ECAC VOLKET ie aah. Mele a hele ble beat a 3 1-13 
POOR Ere Soe a hat Se ils cg ane Minova: ack basa bee 1,268 

DED AN AUIOT ETI che pales evi clas eA Ia mre Be 8 1-16 

SPADA WOLKEL. vars sok cs ee ails cate 9 1-28 

Units per paid worker when more than one 12 2-23 


CuHaptTer VIII 
FINANCES OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION 


Where a national movement is not intensely organized but 
is represented in a given area only by sporadic units of local 
origins—as are 46 per cent. of the cases in the territory studied 
—no appreciable financial problem occurs. It is true that the 
study sometimes found the fees and payments exacted by na- 
tional agencies a deterrent to such organization, and that the 
local choice of agencies was sometimes dictated by the cost of 
their respective uniforms! Generally, however, the expenses 
of the sporadic unit are regarded as incidental, and are carried 
either by the local sponsoring agency or by the individual 
members. 

The financial problem of rural work for boys and girls is 
essentially that of the cost of intensive supervision. ‘This, as 
will shortly be shown, takes by far the greater proportion of 
all the money raised by territorial organization. In the testi- 
mony of representative citizens, and as sensed by the experi- 
ences of field study, this is the only problem that penetrates 
vitally to the public. A typical year’s procedure of the agencies 
was rather ungraciously described as follows: A father and son 
banquet preceding a financial canvass; then complete quiescence 
until another father and son banquet preceding another can- 
vass. And however unjust, this expresses a typical attitude. 

The present chapter deals with fact and opinion concerning 
this major problem of finance. 


FACTS OF TERRITORIAL FINANCE 


The median annual cost of the county agencies for boys 
and men is between $4,500 and $5,000, and of the Young 
Women’s Christian Association $3,058.12 The difference is 


1 Table LXXVI. 
118 


FINANCES OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION 119 


due primarily to the smaller salaries paid to women executives. 
Budgets of above $6,000 in nearly all cases represent salaries 
paid to assistant executives or else activities involving property 
and business transactions. From 8&4 to 95 per cent. of the 
total support comes from annual subscriptions; fees and rentals, 
which constitute so large an element in the support of the city 
Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations, 
being almost negligible. These facts are shown comparatively 
for three agencies in Tables LX XIII and LXXIV. 


TABLE LXXIII—INCOMES OF 57 COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS 
OF THREE AGENCIES 


Amount of Income 


No. of 
Agency Cases Mean Median Range 
Bee i thes Co Oe ae vi, 27 $6,031 $4,516 $1,667-$20,185 
WSOP COTS ie ay Lora ve see 17 6,045 5,178 2,646- 13,750 
*s by ACh SAT 9 Grea aaa apa 13 4,893 3,158 2,400- 17,672 


*Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE LXXIV—DISTRIBUTION OF SOURCES OF INCOME OF 
47 COUNTY * ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Per Cent. Distribution by Sources of Income 


< aout was 
ee ee ye Pa iY! SSP ey Sliaeay 
Ny ence +S ene Pa) = = S 
Agency CS ies Wt ON) sy ner on Aye Raed KOM es 
AGN Se a PURO An GIUW BS) 11,5. 20 CALL) BHT OLD 
Boy Scouts ......... TAOWO4S 105 00 OL) O.01071.9 027 1000 
BN AAG oe dist 13 eB Ged wit Sa 150) 0.0.0.0 FON) 


* Includes comparable district organizations. 


Expenditures ? naturally closely follow incomes. From 51 
to 63 per cent. of the total income is expended for salaries. 
Costs of operation absorb from 17 to 24 per cent., transporta- 
tion from 6.3 to 9.5 per cent., and payments to overhead 
organization from 2.5 to 5.2 per cent. As among the agencies, 
the greatest variation lies in the “other expenditures,’ due to 
the varying nature of their programs. This appears in Table 
LXXV. 


2 Table LXXVI. 


120 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE LXXV—DISTRIBUTION OF EXPENDITURES OF 54 
COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Per Cent. Distribution of Expenditures 


Payments 
Trans- to 
No. of Sal- Cost of por- Over- 
Agency Cases aries Operating tation head Other Total 
VLG ase tats 25 62.7 19.5 9.5 2.5 5.8 100.0 
Bay Scouts: 775.4, 16 54.8 23.8 7.4 3.2 10.8 100.0 


Y.W.C.A 13 51.4 17.0 6.3 5.2 20.1 100.0 


The total work of the agencies has a median cost per county 
of only $3,900 for a single agency working for boys and men, 
or $3,000 for a single agency working for girls and women. 
The median cost per county of two agencies for boys and 
men in one county is $11,609, compared with $8,300 for two 
organizations for women and girls. Where there are three 
organizations in the county, the median total cost is $12,626.* 


FINANCIAL METHODS AND SHORTCOMINGS 


The most frequent method of raising money for the support 
of overhead organization was an annual canvass for subscrip- 
tions—on the basis of quotas assigned to the several communi- 
ties. The agencies generally did not usually succeed in culti- 
vating financially the entire area which they were supposed to 
serve. Very generally the cities are sponged upon by the rural 
districts, and scattered individuals are looked to rather than 
communities as sources of support. Just as it is easier to 
organize the larger and more accessible places, so is it easier 
to cultivate them financially, and the same discriminations were 
found as in the matter of occupancy. A good many complaints 
against the alleged competitive appeals were found. The 
financial tradition under which the agencies work is crude and 
lacking in professional dignity. Reaching out from the cities 
into suburbs and related rural areas, the Community Chest 
movement was found in a few instances. Sometimes it assured 
the rural work of more reliable support than formerly, some- 
times it limited it, but always it necessitated readjustment of 
methods and relationships. 





8 Table LXXVII, 


FINANCES OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION 121 


REPRESENTATIVE OPINION ON FINANCE 


The state of county finances was pronounced “‘good” in 116 
out of 190 interviews whose verdicts could be definitely classi- 
fied, and “poor” in sixty cases; while the verdict in fourteen 
cases was indecisive. Judgments concerning a given county 
or community usually agreed, the main differences being that 
responsible county officers commonly reported less favorable 
conditions than the average friendly but non-participating citi- 
zen did, and that women inclined to hold more roseate financial 
views than men.* 


IS THE WORK WORTH ITS COST? 


There was considerable tendency to make financial verdicts 
determinative and final. The human values of the work of the 
agencies were not infrequently weighed over against its finan- 
cial costs, with a considerable number of conclusions that the 
results were too small for the amount of overhead charges; or 
that the cost was beyond the wealth of the community; or that 
it took too much of the secretary’s time to raise his own 
salary. 


FINANCES RATED BY FIELD INVESTIGATORS 


On the basis of all the data available the investigation has 
attempted to rate the present financial condition in sixty-five 
cases of county organizations where the problem could be ade- 
quately studied. The results, as expressed in loose categories, 
are as follows: 


BT OO is tia ete eae A rae Re Mn Aa Ua ecu 1 

COO Te Mice aes ee tens eae ee a Pee io ek wee et areata 30 
LAS Pet ROE HABE ysis Sido El UP may de tC Pe DO AD a 17 
POO Lads hc iin eae ree Pan ER Ce ah el arn Oa 8 
ES CU WOCIOL sheen YOANN OA NEE Nee MENT s’siat vind nae din oc aee 9 


The category “‘very poor” includes several cases where work 
has temporarily lapsed, largely for financial reasons and where 


4Table LXXVIITI. 


122 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


its revival is problematical. The facts are shown in further 
detail in Table LX XIX. 


WHAT TURNS THE FINANCIAL TIDE? 


The financial quality of the work does not depend upon the 
number of agencies in a county, except where the number is 
extreme;° nor, in the counties studied, does it depend upon 
differences in rural wealth, judged by the available criteria.° 
Where cities are in reach it is apparently city support which 
turns the scales toward financial success. Beyond this the con- 
ditions of success are not clear. It does not appear to depend 
upon the widely distributed wealth of the community as much 
as upon the generosity of a limited number of backers. 


SUMMARY 


The costs of rural territorial organization, for the agencies 
studied, are not extravagant, nor does their application of ex- 
penditures seem unreasonable. How much of a financial bur- 
den it is to raise $3,000 or $12,000 in a county depends ulti- 
mately on its wealth; but the results appear to have no trace- 
able connection with general wealth, because the sources of 
support are personal rather than popular. Most of the money 
raised goes to pay for supervision. Much of it is raised with 
grave difficulty and the most frequent doubts expressed about 
it concern the value of the supervision for which it pays. 


FURTHER QUESTIONS AND ISSUES 


(1) At the rate of cost as above revealed, how far can 
intensive supervision of boys’ and girls’ work by national 
agencies conceivably be carried in rural America? At the 
present rate it would cost nearly $10,000,000 a year to sus- 


5 Table LXXX. 

6 Where the agencies have organized, their finances do not vary directly 
with wealth. But they have never organized in average counties. The 
average value of farms in the counties chosen as typical of the occupied rural 
field of the agencies is a half more than of the country as a whole. Neither 
have the agencies failed in poor counties. A study of farm values in areas 
in which the lapses of one of the major agencies have occurred show that 
they average virtually the same as those in which it has survived. 


FINANCES OF TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION 1238 


tain one executive of one agency in every county of the 
United States; and the agencies have not shown themselves 
satisfied with one per county. Unless very different and 
much better work were done, he would reach only one sex 
in not more than half of the communities of the average 
county, and they generally the least needy ones. Can gen- 
eral extension of the present method of supervision on these 
terms be anticipated? 

(2) Is financing justifiable, even when successful, when it 
takes most of the time of the executive to raise his own 
salary and maintenance charges? 

(3) Is the 3 or 4 per cent. of territorial income which 
goes to the support of national agencies “successfully” raised, 
in the light of the suspicion and criticism which it frequently 
entails? 

(4) Should support be raised from the country at large 
to finance rural work in the more needy counties? Does the 
nation owe it to herself and to her most essential workers 
to do this? If so, on what terms? Are the policies of the 
agencies such that they should be entrusted with such funds? 


CuaptTer VIII, Continued 


ABLES 


TABLE LXXVI—EXPENDITURES OF 57 COUNTY * ORGANIZA- 
TIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Expenditures 
No. of 
Agency Cases Mean Median Range 
ef BT WO ee fea ya ae ALS fie $5,899 $4,500 $1,613-$20,185 
BOY MCOuts hele naa 16 6,194 5,300 1,853— 13,700 
WOW: GlALOG Cel eae eee 13 4,818 3,058 2,402- 17,602 


Includes comparable district organizations. 


TABLE LXXVII—COST PER COUNTY OF 37 COUNTY 


ORGANIZATIONS 
Cost Per County 
No. of 
Counties unth Cases Mean Median Range 
One Agency 
FOL ales 2 csc clean eae er ee eee 19 $4,292 $3,900  $1,667— $9,750 
Por itemales eet wea =) 5,820 3,000 2,475- 17,672 


Two Agencies 
Hor iaiests 7.6 enue te ares 4 12,066 11,609 9,500- 15,546 
One for males and one for females 8 10,313 8,300  5,900- 17,717 


Three Agencies 
All forimalés ian) cavic ain We cals 1 12,026 0126260 7 eee 


Total aige ae ates eat eine chosen 37, $6,866 $5,070 $1,667-$17,717 


TABLE LXXVIII—OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 
REGARDING THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF 47 COUNTY 
ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES 


Number of Opinions 


No. of 
Agency Cases Good Uncertain Poor 
YMCA SPS ee ie ero ey ons, 22 72 8 32 


Bey) Seouts 5 Je Ce a eee, 15 32 3S 14 
VOW eee Ley aire hn 12 3 14 


TABLES 125 


TABLE LXXIX—FINANCIAL CONDITION BY REGIONS OF 65 
COUNTY ORGANIZATIONS OF THREE AGENCIES AS 
RATED BY THE INVESTIGATION 


Rating 
: Very Very 
Agency and Region Good Good Fair Poor Poor Total 
Y.M.C.A. 
Bee AISI DLS iii la da et ees 0 3 0 0 0 3 
Werte tannic)... 6. 2igus le 0 4 1 1 1 7 
SEITEN UAE. kc ielc Lok he eae 0 0 0 2 0 2 
Bast North Central ..:.. -222. 0 2 2 0 1 5 
West tiorth ‘Central’., 234 0 4 2 1 2 9 
jt A RY Sn eS an i ae 1 0 1 1 2 5 
SrA Wats Gore Scere AGA one 1 13 6 7 6 31 
Boy Scouts 
Pre wWeengiand ty..k een eee 0 Z 1 0 0 a 
Datiole Atlantic 14 .4.as ob. ast 0 4 0 0 0 4 
MET eu ec cee aes 0 1 A 0 0 3 
Bast Worth Central. 5... .0... 0 1 3 1 0 5 
WestuNorth.Ceritral:. ct o\ds este 0 0 0 0 0 0 
ESTE (os GATING Cae ON LR 0 3 Z 0 0 5 
Sri Ue Pre OR A! a by\orene $4.7 vue bak 0 11 8 1 0 20 
enV CA) 
BREW eT IDIAIN oh ee cuaclie es h4 0 1 0 0 0 i 
Middle Atishtic: oo) ie. hee. 0 1 1 0 0 Z 
SEC EULGY dp a He Re aeRO UG ied ea 0 1 0 1 z 4 
ast orn, Welitral 2.5 ...+2 «6 0 0 0 0 0 0 
Wreestavortn Centralife... ..s << 0 Z 1 0 1 4 
TE STINGe pei 8 SCR area aN 0 1 1 1 0 9" 
Cafg) os 8 Bets ln, Ge os eRe Dern eae 0 6 3 2 3 14 
Te Ba Fer 9 a eg 0 6 1 0 0 7 
VCE VONTLANIIC Cao ks alias cue es 0 9 2 1 1 13 
DITtIO OTIC, os oa ee sidis. fie ee ote 0 Z 2 3 2 9 
Hast North Central oi, ea 0 3 5 1 1 10 
West North Central ........... 0 6 3 1 3 13 
RAC RCM es tata te ance sew acd wissen 1 4 4 2 2 13 
AS ed Ws OP A 1 30 17 8 9 65 


TABLE LXXX—RATING OF THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF 
THE AGENCIES IN COUNTIES WHERE THERE IS MORE 
THAN ONE AGENCY 


Two Agency Communities Frequency 
Ist Agency 2nd Agency of Occurrence 

Very good COOC ee etre teee parte RETR Co: Cee Pegi aree nels 1 

Good <IGOC s.5 cee Aire Mee et ara'e tine hole dies 7 

Good Bair truce Semen cea Bae eta... te ci eae Wee 2 

Good POOR? Vere ree a tee ee ees tae aida hits 1 


126 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE LXXX—Continued 


Two Agency Communities Frequency 
Ist Agency 2nd Agency of Occurrence 

Good Very Oar Milas sa oac atte om eee ee a ae 1 

Fair AIT yao we us wate wae tea ee ie eee ae 1 

Fair POOr Shien Peaks 18 OY es eee Pa Gees. 2 


Three Agency Communities 

Ist Agency 2nd Agency 3rd Agency 
Fair Fair POOF ald i lens este ee ete 
Fair Poor NV GF VE POOL Uses cis cients ares 


bb pnd 


TABLE LXXXI—RELATION BETWEEN THE NUMBER OF 
AGENCIES PER COUNTY AND THE FINANCIAL CON- 
DITION OF THE AGENCY 


Agency and Financial Condition Number of Agencies in County 
1 2 Total 
YIMGA, 
Very BOOUI yo bcae na iirc is Saree Hae eae 0 1 0 1 
Good ith F038 aday lean Ware tire Meas 6 7 0 13 
Pain eee se PU eee aN reer 2 3 0 5 
PGOG), sac® epee @ Cer re oles an kee iene 3 3 0 6 
Very {poor “Qoeue saree canes sone 2 Z c 6 
Total Sse eee ee Calne eon ele mae 13 16 2 31 
Boy Scouts 
NV ELV » ROOM Goss fn ah ace heme an eee aeers 0 0 0 0 
Fn ors EIRP ORG ORME apa opiate Dein PUM ny Atle rd ee 2 fi 0 9 
Pair! eS Ney Os beatae la ea! ee tna 3 3 Z 8 
PAOD) 305. phates vielen aides dae ee ea 1 0 0 1 
VEPrV DOOK hes haa ae eee eae era 0 0 0 0 
LOTS ais wx eatec ele Ga wee tare rk 6 10 Ps 18 
Y.W.C.A. 
Very BOOT ades cue (astm ene ae hee 0 0 0 0 
GOGd ort 0rs a Cae ree aun eee hate ot 0 6 0 6 
Fair trainees come tare oct att ee 1 1 1 3 
POOP) eds Case Hat ee te oe ae Re tik nae 0 1 1 2 
WEry DOO Wiliec Ue teetaly Sea nid a inte meee 2 0 0 3 
Lota iy aces. Cece Sater antec ieee acre eve 4 8 Z 14 
Total 
Very 00Giiiv scant matriie as beets ye kk 0 1 0 1 
Good Biaeealiee ek tte eer ey seeks 8 20 0 28 
PALES fe Cans cee ih en eras ea inal fice 6 7 3 16 
POOP ccm ds Sve dn eee he kaos i f A 1 9 
Very ade eee a eee vee d ep ate 5 2 Z 9 
Cyr anid OEE RA nie lets aid nie caie wide 23 34 6 63 


CHAPTER IX 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN THE LOCAL 
FIELD 


The report is concerned with a body of work for youth for 
which rural communities feel the need. So much is this true 
that in 46 per cent. of the cases studied the communities had 
secured the work for themselves on their own initiative and 
with only the long-range assistance of the national agencies. 
In forty-six counties out of fifty-three, however, national 
agencies have been found territorially organized. They thus 
help communities and their boys and girls more adequately. 
Incidentally they send their representatives and make their re- 
quirements. They regularize communities, use them as pro- 
motional centers, cultivate them financially for the support of 
their own and the national work. 

So far this process has been studied chiefly in its external 
methods and results. The rooting and subsequent naturaliza- 
tion of organization in rural communities have been described. 
When the story came to deal with supervision and finance, 
some discussion of the feelings and attitudes of the cooperating 
constituencies could not be avoided. In the present chapter 
these become the central theme. How do the communities like 
their close-at-hand partnership with the agencies, and how do 
they react to it in judgment and emotion? 

Is there, in the first place, any consistent tendency? To 
this question a fairly confident answer may be given. There 
is a very general tendency for communities to slip out of the 
reasonable responsibilities of partnership. In spite of the 
many ways in which they have made the work of the character- 
building agencies for youth their own, they are—in intensively 
supervised territory especially—most of the time somewhat 


acutely conscious of it as of external origin. Too often, even 
127 


128 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


after it is apparently thoroughly naturalized in the local com- 
munity, the work later sinks out of the category of things ac- 
cepted or taken for granted by the community, and struggles 
on for a while as something essentiaily promoted and sustained 
by energy from outside; or else responsibility is tossed back 
and forth between national and local agencies, the fortunes of 
the work being most of the time in the air. 

Beyond this most general tendency, and omitting factors that 
are common to all organized work everywhere such as reaction 
against failure and restiveness under financial pressure, two 
very prevalent additional attitudes have already been discovered : 

(1) The very frequent lapses of local units of the agencies 
in rural communities have been accompanied by—probably they 
have also partially caused—a tendency to shift about from 
agency to agency. ‘There is a deep-seated trend toward super- 
ficial loyalties, a lust for trying something new. 

(2) Again, the very general tendency to appreciate the 
professional supervisor above the territorial organization which 
he represents, is a somewhat unique reaction in this particular 
field. 

Further reactions divide according to the local situation. 
One group may be distinguished as the product of the more 
general and less complicated relation of the national and local 
agencies; the other as the consequence of the complicating pres- 
ence of two or more national agencies working in the same field. 


GENERAL REACTIONS OF COMMUNITIES 


In communities in which only one national agency is work- 
ing, and where it is a straight problem of adjustment between 
that agency and local community forces, the two roots of bit- 
terness most frequently encountered were: (a) the alleged 
rigidity of national policies and decisions, and (b) the financial 
exploitation of communities under the guise of service. 

The preponderance of evidence is that most communities 
admit that the national agencies bring them something of 
value, and that the value exceeds the labors and costs involved. 
This is the result of the testimony of about 500 representative 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN LOCAL FIELD 129 


citizens of the communities studied, which is classified in 
Table LXXXII. 


TABLE LXXXII—NUMBER OF FAVORABLE AND UNFAVOR- 
ABLE OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 
CLASSIFIED BY OCCUPATIONS AND BY THEIR RELA- 
TIONS TO THREE AGENCIES * 


Y.M.C.A. Boy Scouts Y.W.C.A. Total 
we aN oom Pore: 
eS ae hi eae ea a 
Fe ea TIM u RN alee PS 
SENG OE RE Ante HR ede Yes 
Occupations Ses ite Naa ei eS DA des 
Non-Participants 
istersyinen.. . 0) 662.0: S65" 23 54. 7 Zia 131 40 
Business men ........ 35 6 OZ HILO 3 0 70% il 
School Superintendents 
and Principals 2... 25 10 22 15 5 Seauebs 
Other professions .... 18 3 14 2 1 1 Jo 6 
Housewives ......... 3 1 4 0 11 4 18 5 
Political officials ..... Zz 1 Y fy ete 1 0 10 b 
Participants 
DIALS on 4 eos vss 10 1 Lh 4 2 1 23 6 
BEOMINGCODS. ste Oss he 11 2 SATs | 9 2 47 5 


* For occupations furnishing a total of ten or more opinions. 


This shows conclusively that the communities want the 
agencies, all things considered. The problem just now under 
discussion is, however, whether these values are offered in 
the most acceptable manner considering essential relationships. 
Generally, as is shown in Chapter VII, the issue is not drawn 
on the failure or personality of the local executive. It is gen- 
erally conceded that, on the average, he is an able man of ac- 
ceptable personality. But communities frequently do not under- 
stand the efforts of the national agencies to secure standardized 
results by enforcing specific requirements, and feel that they 
are dealing with rigid overhead organizations rather than with 
adaptable and sympathetically helpful ones. 

Again, while very generally absolving the local executive 
on the ground that he cannot help himself, communities suspect 
the national agencies of offering service in the promotional 
spirit-and for the sake of laying a foundation on which they 
may carry on financial solicitation. Back of both of these atti- 


130 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


tudes is frequently the sense, already mentioned, of the ex- 
ternality of the national agencies. Personal contacts are in- 
adequate with the bulk of supporting constituencies; and com- 
munities, especially the remoter ones, never get over feeling 
that they are dealing with alien and unfamiliar forces. This 
is doubly true when the headquarters of the agency is located 
in some place that has bitter rivals within the area presumed 
to be a unit of organization. In such cases the executive is 
quickly accused of belonging to the headquarters place to the 
neglect of others. 

It goes without saying that cordiality, patient explanation 
and the sympathetic spirit of service should be employed to 
overcome such attitudes and that the agencies should frequently 
re-examine their own motives and policies to assure themselves 
that these attitudes are never justified. 


ATTITUDE OF LEADERS OF INDIGENOUS AGENCIES 


The most significant aspect of the judgments upon the agen- 
cies is not seen till one considers their source. 

The educators, bringing an unfavorable verdict one-fifth of 
the time, were their most frequent critics. Next to them came 
the ministers, 23 per cent. of whom were strongly critical. 
These are the representatives of the major indigenous agencies 
of the rural community. 

Behind their attitudes can be discerned the supposed influence 
of the work of the national agencies on the success of home 
enterprises, of which church and school are the ones chiefly 
concerned. 

Ministers and school men have been the chief promoters of 
organized work for boys and girls under the long-range aus- 
pices of the agencies, but without the local supervision. They 
agree in liking the agencies best when they can adopt and use 
them in their own institutions, without intensive supervision 
or accountability outside of the community. They tend to like 
the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts best because they are (or have 
been) able to do this under these movements. They have liked 
the Young Men’s and the Young Women’s Christian Associa- 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN LOCAL FIELD 131 


tions less because these agencies have generally not spread with- 
out promoting agents. ‘The territorial organization necessary 
to support such agents is not always acceptable to the local 
church and school. 

Church and school, then, are more frequently friends of the 
work per se than they are friends of the work under paid 
supervision. Many qualifications to this generalization are 
necessary, but the attitude stated was strongly marked in the 
territory studied. 

Ministers frequently say that the Young Men’s and Young 
Women’s Christian Associations affect their Sunday schools 
and religious guidance of youth, and not always favorably. 
School authorities in small communities frequently feel a con- 
flict between their assumed responsibility for the guidance of 
youth in leisure time and in organized athletics, and the leader- 
ship and programs of the agencies. The church frequently 
says that the agencies are less religious than it is, and the school 
that they are less competent educationally. 


QUALIFIED APPROVAL 


As already shown, the preponderant attitude toward the 
agencies on the part of church and school is favorable. These 
are their chief fostering and sponsoring organizations in local 
communities. Nevertheless the testimony was literally crammed 
with evidence showing the seriousness of the problem of their 
judgments as leaders of indigenous agencies. Almost without 
exception, executives testified that the attitude of the churches 
was crucial for their work. Often they found that attitude 
less sympathetic and comprehending than they felt it ought 
to be.* 


1 The secretary of a well-established Young Men’s Christian Association 
gives the following account of the ministers in his county: 75 per cent. 
accept it because of its general reputation and strong local backing. Twenty- 
five per cent. oppose it because they think it superfluous; the church could 
do it just as well. But, he significantly adds, the rural churches are much 
more open to group work because they generally do not have resident pastors 
with whom it is necessary to reach agreement. Field study, in other coun- 
ties, found numbers of ministers personally averse to the work of similar 
agencies, but who restrained their public attitudes because the work had the 
backing of strong members of their congregations, 


132 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


The point was as often raised by supporters of the work 
as by its critics. 

One cannot avoid the conclusion that the work has been 
very imperfectly sold to the official guardians and teachers of 
youth in local communities and that, in spite of the very large 
development of sponsorship, far too much of it subsists only 
through excessive and repeated exercise of promotional activi- 
ties directed from without. 


RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN NATIONAL 
AGENCIES 


It has already been pointed out that the local community 
often becomes the theater of contacts between similar national 
agencies, and sometimes their battle ground. The results of 
such contacts in the counties studied, summarized in terms of 
cooperation or competition, are given in Table LXXXIV. 


TABLE LXXXIJI—COMPETITIVE AND COOPERATIVE RELA- 
TIONSHIPS AMONG LOCAL UNITS OF THE AGENCIES 


Competition between 


a 
Ss 
ie S is 
LV = 
& S 3 = 
Sad my = 
— oss 28 
S es ine 2S oD 
NS os les =v 
~ Les i) aes ys 
re S Soto Ow 
SS os eA ows 
i aoe Sls ae 
= 3° $42 i508 soe 
~~ w 2 “4S Sv 
Ss, Sst Ses Bes 
Sy = 
BS Se O86) TGee 
Competitive Attitudes 
1. Ill will between officers pronounced.. 1 1 0 0 
2. strong mutual resentment... 2... 4 2 1 1 
3. Mild one-sided resentment ......... 0 0 1 
4. Incidental depreciation of one another 7 4 1 2 
5. Acknowledgment of incidental rivalry 
but without resentment or depre- 
CATON ee ee eval ye eine at 5 5 0 0 
6. Competition accompanied by wide- 


spread community animosity ...... 2 2 0 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN LOCAL FIELD 1338 


TABLE LXXXIII—Continued 


Competition between 


3 
= 
0.8 o> as 
‘SEN a 
saa ois 
‘= D ..5 = 3s 
hes XN 8s oD 
$ vo .V'S ete ING Sythe is 
“S = Gee On ; Des 
S$ = s 8 Sei 8N8 
= s syn ae: = a SN 
REE if eat SHS Ohi 
SO S aS ees 8 eS s8 
See 38'S ='S\5 SETS 
aS) endo) O86 COBH 
Competitive Aspects 
PME MON TITICTIDETS 4) v5 bc bid <ahalnie & ieehefios 10 10 0 0 
Per Orennancial SUDPOrt...o~ sacs execs 6 3 2 1 
REEL ICAGCrSIITk Ui oe Gerad vec wees sh aes 4 z 0 2 
4. General and deliberate policy ....... 2 1 1 0 
Codperative Methods Codperation between 
1. Incidental interchange of services ... 8 6 1 1 
2. Recurrent and habitual interchange 
PPGSEL VICES es is sie err hole bare 4 1 Z 1 
3. Codperation with another organiza- 
tion of the same agency .......... 6 Z 1 3 
4, Arrangements mitigating competition: 
(a) Adjustment of age-groups cul- 
AI VELEC LI OC NG aarits cn era e Ga" fe Z 0 0 
(b) Geographical division of field. 1 1 0 0 
(c) Non-competitive features em- 
TAOIST are eens Ue bore ae 1 1 0 0 
5. Joint headquarters with sister or- 
ganization of same agency ........ 7 0 0 7 
6. Joint headquarters with other social 
ELIE ORCA ey iene tint seer cee oa 5 0 2 3 
7. Joint publicity: 
(a) Through Community Chest .. 3 4 0 1 
Ce PLO AOONIOIOS bac 110 oie iene tre scat 1 1 0 0 
8. Joint financial appeal: 
(a) Through Community Chest .. 3 2 0 1 
(b) With sister organization ..... 3 0 0 3 
(c) With other organization ...... 1 1 0 0 
9. Interlocking directorates by delib- 
PALE DOLCH Wir rek ck ah ore wilt don eae & 2 0 Z 
10. Co6dperative organization: 
(a) One agency organizes local 
@Foups of another i. sin. tes 1 0 0 1 
(b) Same groups enrolled under 
Pwotagencies 1.7. sah )say melts 1 0 1 


(c) Two agencies have single 
SXECHIVE a se cate vedo 1 0 0 1 


134 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


The tabulation on pages 132 and 133 registers the conscien- 
tious effort of the field investigators to classify cases of co- 
operation and competition which they encountered in the coun- 
ties studied. Cooperation was considerably more frequent than 
competition. 

No attempt was made to evaluate the several phases of 
cooperation or of competition as enumerated. ‘The two are 
often mingled in the same areas and among the same agencies. 
In general there is too little cooperation and too much com- 
petition. 

The terms in which the relationships of agencies are de- 
scribed are fairly self-explanatory. 

Cooperation ranges from incidental cases, conceded under 
the pressure of community sentiment, to cases of deep-seated 
liking and mutual confidence between leaders and organized 
community councils in which all the agencies have representa- 
tion. 


METHODS OF COOPERATION 


The agencies are occasionally found mitigating the evils of 
competition by such radical methods as the following: (1) 
stressing work for different age-groups. (2) Tacitly agree- 
ing upon a division of territory within a county. (3) Stress- 
ing distinct and non-competitive aspects of their programs. 

Forms of administrative codperation include joint head- 
quarters, joint publicity and financial appeals. Cooperation in 
organization occurs very infrequently in the following ways: 
(1) When one agency establishes local units of another; 
Young Men’s Christian Associations and local Community 
Service organizations were found starting Scout troops. (2) 
When the same groups of boys and girls are recognized as be- 
longing to two agencies at once; as was the case of Young 
Men’s Christian Association and Junior Extension groups in 
two or three counties. (3) When agencies employ local joint 
representatives. One case of this was found when Boy Scouts 
and Girl Scouts had accepted a joint executive under the com- 
pulsion of community sentiment.’ 


2 Sporadic cases of similar cooperation were found outside of organized 
counties. 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN LOCAL FIELD 135 


COMPETITION 


Tracing the competitive series, one starts with positive ex- 
pressions of ill-will between agency representatives. Less out- 
spoken, but smouldering and eating at the situation, is resent- 
ment that does not take overt form. Milder than this, but 
slyly mischievous after the fashion of Puck, is incidental de- 
preciation involving the little thrusts and pin pricks that agen- 
cies give one another. The least emotional of the competitive 
attitudes is one in which the fact of competition is recognized, 
but without resentment or depreciation of the competing 
agency, which is rather regarded with medieval gallantry as 
a foe worthy of one’s steel. As so far defined, the competi- 
tive attitudes have concerned the active participants in in- 
tensive organization. When animosities are deep-rooted they 
sometimes involve entire communities and tend to line up the 
entire population on one side or the other. 

In counties where any national agency has an intensive 
organization, competitive possibilities are present to some de- 
gree in about three-fifths of the cases, owing to the presence 
or two or more agencies working for the same age and sex. 
It is safe to say that whenever there is possible competition 
there is at least some degree of actual competition. Methods 
may, however, be classified as either unescapable or deliberate. 

Where two or more similar agencies are present in a county 
a struggle for members, for financial support, and for leader- 
ship is almost necessarily involved. While it is quite true 
that at best only a small fraction of the boys and girls of a 
given age-group are reached by all the agencies combined, and 
still more true that their total financial cost is not impressive, 
nevertheless, on top of other demands of the community for 
allegiance and support, competition is rarely avoided, if ever. 
The same age-, and sex-groups are cultivated by the same or- 
ganizations, the same influential backing is sought, and the 
same community income is tapped. 

Deliberate competition is less frequent. It is most often 
seen in the administration of the programs of the agencies. 
Sometimes one conducts an aggressive offensive intended to 


136 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


check and throw back the rival organization. Examples are 
the bringing on of a financial campaign so as to interfere with 
the plans of another, or the change of emphasis of program so 
as to defeat another. It requires only a little turning of the 
rudder sometimes to take the wind out of another’s sails if 
not to bring about an actual collision. The most flagrant and 
inexcusable competition was that sometimes found between 
organizations of the same national area disputing for mar- 
ginal territory or for alleged rights in the same territory; as 
where a city and a county unit both claimed the suburbs; or 
when both solicited financial support from overlapping con- 
stituencies, 

Two or more of these forms of cooperation or competition 
were frequently found in the same county. They were re- 
corded only when, in the judgment of the surveyor, they were 
distinctly present. 

Of course, the actual and living situation was tremendously 
more complicated than any formal analysis sounds. Laughter 
and tears are quite near neighbors, and similarly competitive 
and cooperative attitudes alternate if they do not mingle as 
among the self-same organizations, which are friends after 
a fashion, and enemies after a fashion, the emphasis chang- 
ing from day to day as is always true of the complexes of 
people in contrast with abstractions. 


SUMMARY 


Generalization on the foregoing data must take account, first, 
of the general attitudes of communities toward the national 
agencies; and, second, of their special reactions due to dupli- 
cate occupancy and competition. 

On the first point, there is grave doubt whether communities, 
on the whole, are convinced that the agencies are offering them 
their services on reasonable, equitable and generous terms. 

In reaching this conclusion, one faces the possibility that 
what one finds on the basis of facts as they stood at the time 
of the field study would not be found over a period of time. 
One is confronted with the fact that any evidence that one may 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN LOCAL FIELD 187 


have relates to a never-ending process of adjustment between 
communities and agencies, taking kaleidoscopic form. Any 
fact which he may have regarded as of to-day may be different 
to-morrow. Such issues never get settled, because any general 
adjustment may instantly pass into a specific issue any moment. 
Specific issues are dictated by passion and prejudice; hence 
the ebb and flow of attitude, the mixed character of the evi- 
dence, and the general instability of relationships. 

One must, of course, remind oneself that a similar situation 
would be found in any other comparable social field. People 
are continually revising the terms of agreement in all kinds of 
business partnerships, because human judgments vary as to 
whether a thing pays or not, whether or not each is getting 
his share under a given partnership, and whether the intangible 
factors in a situation are or are not satisfactory. Men change 
their doctors, barbers, preachers, shoemakers. Social agencies 
cannot escape the shifting of attitudes on similar grounds. 

In the field of investigation, however, the enormous de- 
gree of shifting discovered and its generally negative results, 
tend to prove the fundamental unsatisfactoriness of present 
methods and adjustments. Certainly the facts fail to show any 
large general growth of permanent local responsibility under 
intensive organization. 

In contrast with this outcome in the rural field, American 
cities appear rapidly to be coming to a positive and consistent 
attitude toward the national promotional agencies. This is 
particularly evidenced by the rapid spread of the Community 
Chest movement and the development of councils of social 
agencies through which the approach of the several agencies to 
the community is controlled. Why have not rural communities 
taken a similar attitude? Presumably because of their relative 
feebleness and lack of acknowledged leadership. The few hun- 
dreds of people are too few and too humble to argue or to 
oppose a nation-wide movement with metropolitan headquar- 
ters. But they reserve their liberty to quit when they are not 


3 Lee, Pettit and Hoey, Report of a Study of the Interrelation of the Work 
of National Social Agencies in Fourteen American Communities, National 
Information Bureau (New York, 1923), especially Chapter II, 


138 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


convinced. Hence the silent dropping out of supporters, the 
continuous “lying down’ on the agencies without argument, 
the eternal rolling back of responsibility upon alien shoulders. 


REACTIONS TO COMPETITION 


Generalizing as to the results of duplicatory occupancy of 
territory, the following seems justified: 

Of the counties studied there were four with more than one 
agency to every five with only one,* and just about half of 
the duplicatory occupancies were competitive. 

In only a minority of such cases, however, were the agencies 
found in an aggressive, fight-to-the-finish attitude toward one 
another. 

Rather frequently, however, the feeling of certain agencies 
is that if they are only active enough they can “run out” some 
of their rivals in the rural field at large. This, of course, makes 
permanently equitable local adjustment difficult. 

In the majority of cases studied, the mutual interaction of 
the community and the nationally promoted, duplicatory work 
was found to have reached what may be called a sort of toler- 
ant, “side by side” attitude. Back of this, one discerns the 
habitual, patient but somewhat bewildered, neutrality toward 
constructive proposals, of the American business man in the 
small community who wants to back whatever is good for his 
town. Without attempting an understanding of the whys and 
wherefores of all of the movements that claim to be useful, 
he characteristically adopts the policy of favoring. them all up 
to the point when they become so burdensome that he feels 
compelled to balk. 

Under the restraint of this attitude, the presence of several 
agencies in the same small community does not always work 
out badly. (1) Generally more boys and girls are brought into 
organized groups than the non-resident executive of a single 
agency can get into his organization. (The evidence does not 
prove, however, that these agencies get more boys and girls 
than a second worker of a single organization would.) 


4Table LXXXV. 


CONTACTS AND REACTIONS IN LOCAL FIELD 139 


(2) Frequently a second organization mobilizes a different 
group of supporters, and secures money and interest not avail- 
able to the first one. 

(3) The expense of overhead administration is frequently 
not much greater for two organizations than an equal amount 
of work generally costs under a single organization. 

(4) The different agencies represent somewhat different 
values. Communities do not regard them as entirely inter- 
changeable and frequently feel that their boys and girls profit 
by the variety of emphasis found in different programs.° 

After all this is said, it can hardly be asserted that com- 
munities really approve their own tolerant “side by side’ at- 
titude. It is not the one they would choose as a positive and 
constructive solution of the boy and girl problem. Whenever 
they are stirred by a crisis into more critical thinking, they tend 
to ask why they should have so many different national agen- 
cies with such generally similar programs. To this question 
they can rarely find a wholly satisfactory answer. 


FURTHER QUESTIONS 


The completed story of the attitudes and reactions of rural 
communities toward the national agencies suggests further 
questions. 


(1) Is not the essential problem of their relationships, and 
of the naturalization of externally originating movements 
serious enough, so that it should not be unnecessarily com- 
plicated by the fact of competition between agencies? 

(2) Is there not danger that the confusion added to com- 
munity situations by the competitive presence of the agencies 
may outweigh the good they may do to local boys and girls? 
Rural communities doubtless do not manifest any charac- 
teristic will to cooperate; and it will probably not do to 
charge, as the Lee report charges with respect to cities, that 
the “desire for local cooperation is blocked by national 
policies.”® But even if the agencies are not better than the 
rural communities, ought they to be worse? 


5 See pp. 27 f. and 147 f. 

6 Lee, Pettit and Hoey, Report of a Study of the Interrelation of the Work 
of National Social Agencies in Fourteen American Communities, National 
Information Bureau (New York, 1923), p. 104. 


140 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


(3) How soon will the terrific mass of unrecorded and 
conceded failure, and the slowness of communities to assume 
fixed responsibility, convince the agencies that they must re- 
form some of their attitudes and methods? 

(4) Whether communities are wise or foolish, must they 
not be the ultimate judges of what is good for them, after 
external agencies have fairly presented their version of bet- 
ter possibilities ? 


Cuapter IX, Continued 
TABLES 


TABLE LXXXIV—NUMBER OF COMPETITIVE AND COOPERA- 
TIVE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG THE AGENCIES 


Relationships 
Competitive Cod perative 
DEUMe ty OT COUNTICS ooo. s nod ee shied beds s 6 15 20 
ENP EL OLE CASCR tt Vee Gee ciod oe GOMES Oo ee wie 84 104 
Particular Agencies 
Y.M.C.A. 
ChriatiztignGiers teres. wie vracio ue sey ate 14 18 
Rea R AS CHEN Aras te eis os Stine ara a abies 35 38 
Boy Scouts 
ADI 2A LIONS Munem chassis seine oie ee ie aie ve 10 10 
ETS EE Cae clayy E SE OL AS Ae Ne Ome a eno 32 22 
Y.W.C.A. 
RP Oem ZAlONs i Cele os Pi Meee 6 7 
(OSES UG Tae URLS Oe AEN AR omer nL Ee Ree i‘ iz 
Other 
(Tre IlZaAtiOTise nae en oe eetes ced fe tates 4 8 
EKA LR MAGNE EON RA age ae gk 15 32 


TABLE LXXXV—NUMBER OF COUNTIES HAVING SPECIFIED 
COMBINATIONS OF THE AGENCIES IN COUNTIES IN- 
TENSIVELY ORGANIZED BY ONE OR MORE AGENCY 


(46 Counties) 


Combination Number 
BFE GES Lcee Re we eg SRE ce Pate PUAN RANA UTE A he Rg 18 
CE rem CSTE Suerte, Maer eteNe Lo eee dt Le rhe Was he bt ed re 
LSE OVS PP nt tate tis SNe rat A Tale hey Sa uvect ales 6 
Pear Chae LAIN Suede siagciets Marites Ge Cte i hake tence ea ky 0 
One Boys’ and One Girls’... )......... A NEAL 2 Jpeg ak 10 
Pew OPO yS) ANd Cnet t Siena sees trea ele bs eres 5 
Ibis ATs NGAPOVG Grey ole ey bik oe had aulemtels s. 6 0 
pavos Bove ads L WOLGITIS meinen aoa arent sell hes eg 2 
PSE RI aan os ee dk aT 46 * 


* Seven of the 53 counties surveyed are not under intensive organization by any 
of the specified agencies. 141 


CHAPTER X 


HOW CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED THROUGH 
ACTIV ETS: 


When the national agencies and the cooperating communities 
get boys and girls organized into groups, either under inten- 
sive or non-intensive supervision, just what do they do with 
them ? 

The average parent, it is safe to assume, is little concerned 
with matters of organization and policy, or of financial and 
statistical results; but is interested in what his children recog- 
nize as the realities of the work, namely, the leader, the group 
and the program. Of these, the first two have had formal con- 
sideration. The present chapter devotes itself to the third. 
Just what are- the characteristic activities of the organized 
groups through which character is presumed to be developed? 

As bearing upon this question, two pertinent views may 
be brought forward from previous chapters. First, the agen- 
cies regard their programs as different in important respects. 
They also have different methods of arriving at the activities 
to be followed locally. Some set forth fixed programs supposed 
to be carried out by their local units throughout the country. 
Others, while suggesting a wide range of acceptable possibili- 
ties, stress the vital importance of discovery by each community 
of its own program of activity, within the general ideals of the 
organization. These factors should make for variety in actual 
practice. 

On the other hand, communities have been found using the 
agencies, to a large extent, as though they were interchangeable. 
They support now one, now another, and in cases where they 
are supporting several at once, they often wonder why these 
cannot be combined. This is testimony to the essential simi- 


larity of the work under the several auspices. 
142 


HOW CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED 143 


What is foreshadowed in these previously made discoveries 
is directly investigated in the present chapter, which deals with 
programs of activity for youth-groups as actually encountered 
in field study. 


ACTUAL VS. ADVERTISED PROGRAMS 


The wide gulf that stretches between the ideal or standard 
program and the actuality in the average organized area, may 
be illustrated by the case of the Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
ciation.» Of the five agencies, it is the only one that reports 
comparably as to particular elements of program by county 
units. Its reports, however, cover a limited list of items and 
fail to tell in how many communities of the county the particu- 
lar activity listed has gone on and for how long a period during 
the year. All one knows is that it has been in operation some- 
where in the county. The per cent. frequency of the occur- 
rence of thirty-one items of program in the ninety-five organ- 
ized counties reporting for 1923 is:? 


Per Cent. Frequency Number of Items 
WPEMPEATIEL ORGS ORG OL poirot Gets CE eee ee Coe aklowsieaees 8 
eI ern Ne Cre ovate ute Aes odie ak 8 
Sv Me meen ee Fa ety ier, 10. Gy. Weclalcistoaite Mais «usa aia Ula’ 8 
oot (ACTER EE NARA Ie AI ER, ie ae LAC Ene a 7 


It is to be noted that almost half the items recorded as though 
it were expected they were to be included in representative 
programs, occur in less than half the counties, and that almost 
one-fourth occur in less than one-third of the counties. In 
other words, out of the total range of rural activities on which 
the Young Men’s Christian Association thinks it important to 
keep track of its work, most county programs have only a 
fraction of items. To be specific, industrial and agricultural 
elements of the programs have a very low frequency indeed.* 

1 Table LXXXVIII. 

2 Year Book, pp. 115-116. 

8 Exactly the same trend is shown for the other agencies by the relatively 
smal] number of members of advanced rank. The greater part of the actual 
work of an agency is often for “tenderfeet,” while much the greater part of the 
book in which the program is set down concerns various requirements for 


advanced ranks. The conclusion cannot be avoided that there is a great 
discrepancy between the announced program and the actual program. The 


144 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


This shows how far most of the occupied areas are from carry- 
ing out the national program in its fullness. 


CONTENT OF LOCAL PROGRAMS 


When, however, one descends from areas such as counties 
to individual communities, the case becomes still more serious. 
The study found great difficulty in reconciling the elaborate 
programs announced by the agencies with the rather meager 
facts locally testified to. These facts were discovered by an 
intensive study of the current year’s activities of 152 local 
units of the five agencies. “They are presented in detail in 
Tables LXXXIX to XCIII. The outstanding discovery was 
that, in an aggregation of 291 different activities reported by 
these 152 units, 63 per cent. (nearly two-thirds) were actually 
in operation in less than 25 per cent. of the groups. The re- 
maining 37 per cent. had a frequency of from 25 to 85 per 
cent., with a median of almost exactly 50 per cent. In short, 
the more frequent activities (listed in the tables) occurred, on 
the average, in only half of the units. Applied to the agencies 
individually, this means, for example, that if the combined 
program indulged in by over one-tenth of the local units of the 
Young Men’s Christian Association were taken as a pro- 
visional standard, the average unit would score at not more 
than 33 per cent. in actual performance.* 


DURATION OF ACTIVITIES 


From the standpoint of the length of time per year that a 
given activity is in operation, the facts are equally striking. 
The average duration of the longest continued activity found 
in local units was as follows: 





agencies are not alone in this regard. Venerable colleges, for example, show 
a great gulf between the advertisement of curriculum in the catalog and the 
courses of study actually being given. 

4It is, of course, recognized that not all items in county programs are 
intended to be carried out by all local groups. Some are by nature central 
and apply only to people who can be brought together from their several 
communities into conferences, etc. These central activities supplement local 
programs in important ways; but they do not directly reach the majority 
of members of the groups. 


HOW CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED 145 


RPE MONEE Rh asd! oy ¥ vi lace AGAURS al NW obaedae BT ae aes 38 weeks 
Ee CC AO Re aM «TES RRR ESOS Dnt kD WE aU tag 
EMME PAS Se bia ciscs vocln Ta see ae ai aL ee oe fd Ake 
PMU PRN Mi nig tcc wails Hh coke Wha mal eeubiocy pate wie Pn ahd LGA 
GRIME DAT GLSIT IS oj) Ae Ee cae oe oxicenint ae ot iSee 


Some of the units are in operation only during the school 
year. The intensive study definitely shows all agencies tend- 
ing, in the majority of communities, to carry out a much nar- 
rower and less continuous program than their announcements 
confess, or than they themselves probably realize. The por- 
tion of the program that actually gets down into use for and 
by boys and girls in local communities is fairly scanty. 


THE COMMON CORE OF VARIANT PROGRAMS 


Within organized territory, the agencies commonly make 
their appeals to the public through bulletins, annual reports and 
occasional forms of printed publicity. These are the real plat- 
forms on which they “go to the county” for support. In these 
documents the agencies put forward their best foot, in order 
to impress their immediate constituencies. A careful reading 
of publicity material accumulated in the files of the study from 
the county organizations of three national agencies was made, 
and the number of times a given item of program or activity 
occurred in such material was noted for items mentioned more 
than once. The results are given in Table LXXXVI. 

It is very instructive that camping is the most frequently 
proclaimed activity in the advertising material of all three 
agencies. Conferences (known to include elements of a re- 
ligious character) and Bible study stand high on the list with 
the Young Men’s Christian Association and the Young 
Women’s Christian Association, while father and son and 
mother and daughter gatherings are stressed by all three. 
Athletics are put to the front by the Young Men’s Christian 
Association, and hiking and swimming by the Boy Scouts. 
Personal health guidance is the guise under which the Young 
Men’s Christian Association concerns itself with physical 
activity which the boys’ organization, on the other hand, gets 
at by means of outdoor exercise. Social dancing stands high 


146 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


with the Young Women’s Christian Association, as do com- 
munity interests and group discussions. In these and other 
tninor elements, sex differences are perhaps reflected. This 
TABLE LXXXVI—ACTIVITIES IN THE COUNTY PROGRAMS 


OF THREE AGENCIES RANKED BY FREQUENCY OF 
MENTION IN LOCAL PROMOTIONAL LITERATURE 


Y.M.C.A. YW. Boy Scouts 
(14 Cases) (8 Cases) (9 Cases) 
Times Times Times 
Men- Men- Men- 

Activity tioned Activity tioned Activity tioned 
Campsineccntcenes 147% *Canipg ay eae on Ot (Canmips ope aaa 9 
Conferences ...... Lis je Biple Stidy.vweeess 5 Father and _ son 
Athletics Wek 11 = Social dancing .... 4 gatherings ...... 4 
Father and = son Conferences ...... o (Swimmilig ila 4 

gatherings ..... 8 Mother and daugh- Hikes soo; 6 i, tee 4 
Bible istady ... 2. e 7 ter gatherings .. 3 Celebrations of 
Practical Christian Addresses ........ 3 holidays; )7i. gaa 4 

SELVICE I. Say ee 6 Personal health in- Patriotisar. eee 3 
Thrift education .. 6 StPuCHON aguiett 3. Vocational — guid- 
PWitntititie ey vas 6 COMIMMINg Wine, 3 ANCE: \acwiiaete eee 
Group devotional Community better- 

theetings it yay 5 sat Lark aaeenray Ray 3 
Religious education 5 Group discussion . 2 
Socials Huns wiraet ee 4 Vocational  guid- 
Celebrations of AUCH Meme ees 4 

holidays Niete.s 4 Sewing classes .... 2 
Athletic meets .... 4 ° Rest rooms ....... 


Personal  evangel- 
ism training .... 4 


Tikest i pee ees 4 
Vocational  guid- 
ANCES hae eee 4 
Addresses ........ “ 
Patriots 3 
Community better- 
ment ik ee ee ee 2 
Moving pictures .. 2 
Band yor cu tems Z 
Personal health 
education ...... 2 
Sex education .... 2 
Literary programs. 2 
Handeraits 2.4. Z 
Delares cs ac ant 2 


Ethics of social 
relationships .... 


is the impression of the work of the agencies that one would 
get if one were simply to take their current publicity at face 


value and make no corrections or deductions. It suggests 
somewhat different programs, but with a common core. 


HOW CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED 147 


A still stronger demonstration of the common elements in 
the several programs of the agencies is made by a ranking of 
the thirty-four items that appear in 15 per cent. or over of 
the local groups. This is shown in Table LXXXVII. The 
construction of the table was as follows: The items were ar- 
ranged in four equal groups according to degree of frequency 
for each agency. Those falling in the upper fourth were given 
a value of 4, in each case, etc. The significance of the ratings 


was thus: 


4=most frequent 
3= above average frequency 
2= below average frequency 
1= least frequent 


The aggregate value of each item for the five agencies was 
found by addition, and became the item’s final ranking value as 
shown in the last column of Table LXXXVIJ. 


TABLE LXXXVII—COMMON ELEMENTS IN THE PROGRAMS 
OF ALL THE AGENCIES 


Agency 
Xx NX 
S) ae iS) ae A sea ~ © 
a8) 0 aeleun es eaters 
Ns m9 NN Wy ROR Cys 
Common to All and most fre- mf 
quent with All of the 
Agencies 
Personal standards ......... 4 4 4 4 4 20 
eon standards 5% ..2.2.)5. 4 4 4 4 4 20 
se OE Pe eee ies vr asta s 4 4 4 4 4 20 
UAL COTY a SEA Is iO ee 4 4 4 4 4 20 
SOME RTC CET TR Ge ea ae 4 4 4 4 4 20 
Common to All and most fre- 
quent with Four Agencies 
Pee AP ETIICS 3500). Gloss shud ed's 4 4 3 4 19 
rereonal Healthy.) s.s0. see 0 ese 3 4 4 4 4 19 
Father and son events ....... 4 3 4 4 4 19 
(Mother and daughter) 
Common to All and most fre- 
quent with Three Agencies 
First aid or home nursing ... 3 4 3 4 4 18 
“Other recreational activities” 3 3 4 4 4 18 
Practical service—“good 
Gosek hice ais & betas 4 4 4 3 3 18 
SUSUR Stes Tg A eae ) 4 3 4 4 17 
PATENEIO ODIILESES (isin e.os'st as 4 4 1 4 2 15 


148 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE LXXXVII—Continued 


_ Agency 
ba on 
S hy ts. Ce 
a BS TS ees ee 
NN QH Ny sty MRS 
Common to All and most fre- 
quent with Two Agencies 
Thrift Wak pho eee oe eae 3 4 3 4 3 
“Other health activities” ..... 4 3 3 4 3 
Group devotional meetings .. 4 3 4 z 3 
Anniversaries and _ celebra- 
HONS ee ee Se ee tea 2 4 4 3 2 
Bible: stidy. ay ucnunte ew mu are 4 fe 4 1 2 
Common to All and most fre- 
quent with One Agency 
SWIMM A 5 hata nun ae sane 3 1 3 3 
CRAIC yas brs ceed ed eee ae eas 2 ye 2 4 
Common to All and most fre- 
quent with None of the 
Agencies 
Sex ucation trea veaeeens ns 3 3 3 2 2 
Public health activities ...... “4 3 3 Z 2 
Direction of reading ........ 3 2 3 2 3 
Health examinations ........ 3 3 3 Zz 2 
Athlone imeects 0.20 ean ces 3 3 | 1 Z 
Vocational guidance ........ 3 3 1 1 
Common to Four and most fre- 
quent with Two Agencies 
Dramaticevercus kee ween eae 0 3 4 3 4 
CONTETenCES Hee tee ve ok oe 4 3 4 j 4 0 
Common to Four and most fre- 
quent with None of the 
Agencies 
Lectites Viti to bites 3 3 2 x 0 
Common to Three and most 
frequent with One Agency 
Disctission’ groups)... sae. eas 3 0 4 0 2 
Common to Three and most 
frequent with None of the 
Agencies 
Missionary meetings ........ 3 0 3 0 1 
Interior decorating .......... 0 0 0 3 a 
OWitie i Walla se teme seers we 0 0 1 Z a 
Common to Two and most fre- 
quent with None of the 
Agencies 
Domestic Science ........... 0 0 0 2 2 


CONT 


HOW CHARACTER IS DEVELOPED 149 


The five items tending to greater frequency with all agencies 
are (1) inculcation of standards of personal character; (2) 
inculcation of group standards; (3) socials; (4) camping; and 
(5) listening to profitable or entertaining addresses. This is 
the actual heart of the program of the agencies for youth; and 
these are its predominant methods. Inculcation of social ethics 
in some phase, attention to personal health, and gatherings at- 
tempting to interpret fathers and sons or mothers and daugh- 
ters to each other, are the three next most general and frequent 
elements. “First aid’ or home nursing, recreational activities, 
practical service (“good turns,” etc.), patriotism and athletic 
contests also tend to general use in local programs. 

The ranking of these thirteen items indicates the reality of 
the common core of all the programs, and marks the dwindling 
away of the common trend toward minor diversities. 


DIVERGENCES 


Divergence of program properly appears as between girls’ 
and boys’ organizations. The confessedly “Christian” agen- 
cies naturally stress the formal elements of religious activity, 
such as Bible study and missions. The Young Women’s Chris- 
tian Association tends to indoor activities somewhat more than 
do the other agencies. Other important divergences appear 
in this table and in Tables LXXXIX to XCIII, all of which 
deserve careful study. 


SUMMARY 


In program, as well as in method, leadership, and the objec- 
tive characteristics of their groups, the agencies are very much 
alike. Only a meager part of their programs actually gets down 
to the local groups. Within the very few years for which they 
hold the average member, the duration of any particular ac- 
tivity is relatively brief. This evidently explains the relatively 
small advancement of the average member.° Does it also 
prove that character cannot be developing very fast? 


5 P. 70. 


150 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


FURTHER PROBLEMS 


Beyond the inquiry as to whether the agencies cannot contrive 
to do more thorough-going work with the local group, lie other 
and still more deeply rooted problems. 


(1) Is not the impressive common element of program 
of all the agencies probable evidence that all are on the 
right track? May one not accept the common core as a re- 
flection of a true understanding of boy and girl nature? If 
so, directed activity has discovered its three R’s, comparable 
with those of the school curriculum. When regional en- 
vironments and the rural vocations are a little more fully 
provided for in the activities and requirements of the agen- 
cies, need one seek elsewhere for evidence of what, generally, 
American boys and girls should have done for them? 

(2) Is the brevity of the specific influences counted on to 
develop character a defect necessarily fatal? The question 
of the natural, psychological duration of the phase of 
adolescent development to which group organization ministers 
has already been raised. Certain it is that whoever deals 
with humanity in its plastic years is venturing in a realm 
whose potencies are not measured by time. “One crowded 
hour’ of crisis may count more in the development of char- 
acter than months of a slower-going phase of life. 

Consequently, while one may be sure that the magic re- 
sult of work with youth does not depend upon anything 
peculiar to this agency or that, one is not necessarily con- 
vinced that the brevity of the work touches its most essen- 
tial functions. Besides being on the right track, the work 
has the essential virtue of timely leadership. The main 
chance for power with life as a whole lies here and at this 
time. 

(3) In so far, however, as the agencies may lay this flat- 
tering unction to their souls, should they not all the more 
faithfully seek to reach a good understanding with the forces 
in local communities that have greater continuity of influence, 
rather than try to go forward alone in the long and varied 
process of developing human character? 


CHAPTER X, Continued 
TABLES 


TABLE LXXXVIIJ—ACTIVITIES IN THE COUNTY PROGRAMS 

OF THE YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 

RANKED BY FREQUENCY OF MENTION IN 1923 RE- 
PORTS FROM 95 COUNTIES 


Per Cent. of Coun- 


Activity ties Reporting 
MeL OEM ETE QUIN Yds Wik Laos Le Widba ie Kctein dealers eam atahe 04 
OCinLn ANU entertainments | elses sips nee sss ale 3 bay eleid 94 
ive hie etudy classes aio fay Gee avg a haen ae 93 
POVGIIUOLLLETeHCES 3. Vuh on eas Uc ace week hose feted 89 
LECCE IME | RARE ai i DIO es (TD PI EE cE PEs PRO A at 89 
PELROIN SOL -CVENIBiON, Pot tl aindreubiwh og x bien ea aeacls 87 
ee Nae deh 6 a 2 TESS yO BURT ra gi ALAC cea a i ae a 82 
MEE CONV TAC COTIS ese Pac od bc wks sive ble tis ples isc ga an/ets 75 
Ueieral Neerufess and Addresses his.'c. be uierces cus ee sneees 74 
ieee tortie. Ghristian lites) <1 bine ke os 0 bk wae gh 
ee aA Oe oe eee et ae wn ies A Aldo We ak aero yf 
epee PCT OSU cat ces ys why.sfs suave ele bh are eeaaed be 72 
I Me he ete ct ce eho ck cde k oa saa cee 64 
DRT IMIRIITIOOL ERE al y'd bile cl chistes ARieto ys alae fies cc Wien ie /d/a'6 61 
Sk a es Fe Pog LOS LANNE 5 cof ig pear oe Ui Dn Op gags 53 
Deaners ctraitille Conierences oo. oii aes'as desea eh de deus 53 
IRR CMET CALS IRC E er ats vic u ties eo ale wie hy ea DAY e kk Cee aid 
PR PME MRL IIIS PMA EM rao ale OG ee «Sk win vee Ce duis ae 49 
ES NE Cr FGI Doth era Saar Pad SS a ed al a 46 
SIG COALS fio 2a Peon RU es eee A ae ae 38 
PRE OR INECTIN OS ine) ci lee iM a Dla tele idy! Wusaak sprees Od 38 
epee ett IICARICE reuse or iria ciel 2 8 o2'y. «plain Aad s alsin fie g'vin't 38 
MS BA VINE MANZE. iy panos gice a oiassla nee gts gee oan gine 35 
Pare tiaer es CIT Coie g ere ae ped velows we dre 34 
Buel t MSECULER dum sot ds ONG, Dan as ins osc eae s Ge os 33 
Der IDRC IAGSES Puen siete eh hg S ple oGak'a hed ela cise -y Ws 23 
Pet CLTSSES fos irs UNG nok Cle ba yale. ouiee suvaraesie 14 
ounesrserving industrial plants .\.ccc ks see eee es i2 
Pere itr VOIDS. OF GORTESES Wy aioe. lea hook vc ala wi 6 wo 10 
Industrial “foremen’s meetifigs’ Jo... 60. ne cece 7 
Enrolimentin ‘natiralization; classes: ..0) .4 sis. cannes 5 
Athletic leagues in industrial plants ...............000- 4 


(From the Young Men’s Christian Association Year Book, 1923, page 45.) 


15] 


152 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE LXXXIX—AVERAGE DURATION PER YEAR OF SPECI- 
FIED ACTIVITIES LISTED BY 41 LOCAL UNITS OF THE 
YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 


Number of 
Weeks’ Duration 
No. of Units Per Year- 
Activity Reporting * Median 
Bible "study Ban eee oe eee ne ea cee 35 20 
Personal standards Na a eae 26 19 
Canter ences poe old gk Ca bene Bake NAD Zo 1 
Pather and) sonravents.. jk. pian ee 21 1 
(Mother and daughter) 
ACA esse se Aree ey ee ae LG aby ee mean 20 2 
Cirotign Standartisin cies eyes ica neato ee Gee 20 20 
Group devotional meetings ...............4. 19 24 
Athlete: contests. ie ww ches ee eas Peete 17 pe 
DOCIE ELICS yore ved ee eae Utes oN 16 8 
Socials ery Ae Wee ee Os iar kee ee 16 4 
Practicalyservice nue dee Oe ee 15 24 
“Other health activities; ene eee ee ns 14 28 
Campitie sss sn eens Meee eee nee rete 13 1 
PR rakt as 6 Sie Bee, Fe a he ere ed Semen oR ae 12 1 
Swimmingy hy Hee ot he al GaP Pee oe aa 11 1 
Sex ediications suse ews ode okey Gstearaia SuneTs 10 1 
Discussion groups SAS ole AMT ea ON a toll by IR 9 19 
Lectures te pero ee a er eee ae 9 2 
First aid or home NUPSHO ae bie een 9 1 
Personalshealth or ee ee 9 20 
Missionary, meetings) Se mir: 9500). .ue kevin 8 1 
Public, healthsactivitiess oe let bee eee 8 20 
Athtetie: mibetshr youre arene cok ea teens ae 8 1 
Direction pot vréadiuig hig aoss ay ene eee 7 fA 
Healthvexaminations vise. ones lee ope 7 1 
Operation of Camp payne ree ree ee 7 a 
ESVaNigelstits Leaning nie ice tne are 6 yA 
Vocationaliciidancensasteay as coer ken eon 6 1 


* Does not include 26 other items reported five times or less. 


TABLE XC—AVERAGE DURATION PER YEAR OF SPECIFIED 
ACTIVITIES LISTED BY: 39 LOCAL UNITS OF THE BGs 


OU Ue 
Number of 
Weeks’ Duration 
No. of Units Per Year- 
Activity Reporting * Median 

Camping caus ene eins is toed BR 23 1 
PAtriokisiii, | Vee eee ey ake picisies Wetee mies Ze 24 
First\ aid, opshome tirsingy, asin ee ee eee = 22 12 
Csrolipetantiarns wen el eth ol es 20 17 
DWC AiG ce stm, eee hl gis ote 19 5 
Persouals staudatiany oe tir sew ene aes 18 30 
CRY EC Ai nate sare eee aceetde pecit a aim perle Stel die oe 17 8 


TABLES 


TABLE XC—Continued 


Activity 
Celebrations and anniversaries 


“Other recreational activities” 


Conferences ... deme m a tide wire 
“Other health activities” ...... 
Father and son events ........ 


(Mother and daughter) 


amp cperation <.750.... ee... 
merrpticrencets 003... Brae ee ee. 


* Does not include 36 other items reported five times or less. 


No. of Units 
Reporting * 
BURTICTee re Siri oe 5 ns ohcbei aks Males Dee 
PE PLIICS 2g yc os a 4's te ce toe 
So AE Je SE aR SES re 
Prmcucal’ service \. oo. oo 
PERMA ees 2 5 ocd oid & ooo eee See 


cee ee eee eevee 


e¢eseeve eae sees 


eevee sense 6 66 


ose ee oe eevee 


eeeoeceereeveeece 


oer ees ee eeene 


153 


Number of 
Weeks Duration 
Per Year- 
Median 


TABLE XCI—AVERAGE DURATION PER YEAR OF SPECIFIED 
ALIN TTIES ,OR .2/)-LOCAL “UNITS, OF THE YOUNG 
WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION 


No. of Uniis 


Activity Reporting * 
EAT ODCES) Oa eekls a Mie yw eee wks fuss 19 
Memoria SEAIGATUS/ vc sinha s osc ci gall es holes 19 
BePmCAICG I SCTVICE sc pe eh esc behind ach sine os 18 
Group devotional meetings ............... 17 
REM COs eee sic Puede ares sis blak bb ocd lactase W 
MMPI e STATIC LOS.) i, whe as y vis elves So aks be oes 14 
er PMEETICY Wile a aia eis Sailer gle dets doo milecs 13 
TO ES 5 Bally Sa NCTE A TRS AM Ea aE Be rr 13 
RemarE MEDICA ITI. eras cis see a af an ace sls idy Bee 13 
PENA INOLINC SO! yh epds Sid a'h oaks Gb lp te wie S il 
“Other recreational activities” ............ 11 
PRM SATICGN Go ee cae ea leince cite utes ae dee a 10 
RPE Ie I Mier S) cid g PUMA ees Ral ney em eee 10 
PE RTEMER TI a's G4 ky ch Pale Bele oe Alsou e 9 
Pormal religious services 60. 4 ce eee s3 e's 8 
Mother and daughter events .............. 8 

(Father and son) 

Bee aS VOIDS) oh eure van Naot hog as 7 
MICAS, hss ou bsle eric antv dtd oaheee 7 
Deiscionary. mectings 4s... 30.2 ss aa een wales 6 
Byirecrien Forte reading seins vs ele vw valerie’ 6 
PRIEPAGOUTOOTAMS . os .lie'ds's pe ame dbo ieuy on. 6 
eR RERCCALLONL Bosh cit, © aia slg hie Sore ns Ph ie 6 
ee AO UIUALICE 5 psh5 5 ace Ole ea noe cide 6 


* Does not include 43 other items reported five times or less, 


Number of 
Weeks’ Duration 
Per Year- 
Median 


3 
15 


pom 
t2 DV Ge 


— 


— 


— 
SBN WORR OD SN RMWROUWAW 


154 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


TABLE XCII—AVERAGE DURATION PER YEAR OF SPECIFIED 
ACTIVITIES LISTED BY 19 LOCAL UNITS OF THE GIRL 


SCOUTS 
Number of 
Weeks’ Duration 
No. of Units Per Year- 
Activity Reporting * Median 
Home hursing or first aid2e awe eee 14 4 
Camping cia uke ay tie an ceteit then ae ee eee ee 13 1 
Group sstandards 05.7. cir gins sere Gate eee 2 aL 
Patriotisny Cer eee he ee ee 12 32 
Socialette 5.) oc lars oy al Bee Os cae EL 12 Zz 
Personal standards < ili ee ween nee 2s 10 38 
Personal healthd, soe eee a ee ees 10 8 
“Other health activities) imac et ot eines 10 14 
“Other recreational activities” ..........:. 9 5 
4 Wiehe py eee Re At I he RT WU AO aie ae Gel hea 8 10 
Mother and daughter events .............. 8 1 
(Father and son) 
Addressesice hs Hien ely DeLee wet face 7 6 
Handcrativcnu. iol. rte ee an 7 12 
Athletic contests 0709 on Gi ee oe enn | 3 
Socials ethits 6 pus oe aie ea bia i he ty 6 12 
DomestiesscienceyY, wee uae Gaeta ce Been bal 6 16 
OCW LAE ore onl ice oes tote ak eee Sey pane Corn 5 2 
Health ‘examinations! \y yore teen Oeeeies 5 2 
Switiming WG lan dear ann aims one paren 5 S 
CHArity yore Ge aw ctctacn n/c ot Merete cle gee caea 5 o 


* Does not include 34 other activities reported four times or less. 


TABLE XCITI—AVERAGE DURATION OF SPECIFIED ACTIVI- 
TIES LISTED BY 26 LOCAL UNITS OF THE CAMP FIRE 


GIRLS 
Number of 
Weeks Duration 
No. of Units Per Year- 
Activity Reporting * Median 
Handerait pices. eter ce ae cee cee 16 13 
Homie nursing or) trstiaidee) rae soak ees 16 4 
Group ‘stanmardsiry: connie nels eee tent 15 11 
SOCAIS MA hE eee ae Pm alo eae, Canoe 15 2 
Pérsonalsstandardsy 2 ikea ey ae ees 13 12 
Motherand daugntetum mere ee ec a ve 13 1 
Canrpine ie peer caay Meera er ices tee trea io 1 
“Other recreational activities” ............ jis 5 
Social (Rites Uae ee ue 11 10 
Patriotismiriicwns cuieea telat chee La ae als 11 1 
Dramatics coy ey ore ee rere ens beac 10 6 
Persotialtnbaltiige cer cere ercsiaceac acd 9 4 
Charity ty toned ia iter nee sie ah CoN lie 8 6 
AGOATESSAS GIA eee rel hig A on iuted wh eg 7 3 
SEVILLE Waris crits etane Rear ewe healalyevia ss otelicrd ae 7 12 
TOPE Cor ie Ce LD eile ye ewe an 6 
Practical sservitesioe veneer culate lie od sekce 6 Z 
SWIMM any aide ah eno tle eies ae ta 6 a 
Literary proggams ses aes n ies Geran 5 8 


* Does not include 43 other activities reported four times or less, 


CHAPTER XI 
IS THE WORK WORTH WHILE? 


Of the previous chapters, the data for the first six were al- 
most exclusively factual. The last four, while based on sta- 
tistical evidence, made increasing use of tabulation and formal 
interpretations of the judgments of representative citizens of 
communities in which the work was studied. 

As to whether the work, all told, is worth while, the only 
kind of evidence possible is the judgment of individuals. Ulti- 
mately, perhaps, technical tests of character-building processes 
will be developed and one may be able to isolate particular in- 
fluences so as to measure their specific contribution to the de- 
velopment of a particular individual or human group. But 
in actual occurrence, many influences play upon personality at 
every stage, and character is the resultant of them all. For 
the present, therefore, one can measure the value of a given 
force only by the agreement of the verdicts of people standing 
near to its operation. If responsible citizens, financial sup- 
porters, fathers and mothers, pastors and teachers, and the 
affected individuals themselves (looking back to boyhood and 
girlhood), say that the work is worth while and that its con- 
tribution to character is in considerable measure what its pro- 
jectors believe it to be, such testimony must be accepted as 
establishing the fact for the present purposes. The present 
chapter summarizes the testimony on this point. 


ILLUSTRATIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE OPINION 


The preponderance of favorable opinion regarding the agen- 
cies has already been indicated in Chapter IX. Of 509 per- 
sons formally interviewed, 412 gave approving verdicts, on 


the whole, of the agencies operating in their counties or com- 
155 


156 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


munities, while ninety-seven disagreed. The distribution of 
favorable and of unfavorable opinion among the agencies is 
shown in Table XCI, which also shows how many opinions 
were based upon work territorially organized and how many 
upon sporadic units of local origin. 

TABLE XCIV—NUMBER OF FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE 


OPINIONS OF REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS CONCERN- 
ING LOCAL WORK OF THREE AGENCIES 


Favorable Unfavorable 

2 ft 

aes 3 S Bolg 
ea OD Ss ' 2 — 2 ' 2 ~ 
825 S 2 § 8 S 28 s 
SE ~ = — ~~ ~S roy 
Agency Ringo WA esieinn tenes B 2) a Ses 
UM. GAG acme ery, 168 0 168 49 0 49 
Boy Scouts ...i.5 197 116 57 173 21 % 24 
YW. GAra aes 95 57 14 71 Zs 1 24 


There is relatively much less criticism of locally originated 
work than of that intensively organized and supervised by the 
agencies. The Young Men’s and the Young Women’s Chris- 
tian Associations were regarded unfavorably in about one- 
quarter of the opinions concerning them, while the Boy Scouts 
were regarded unfavorably in only 12 per cent. of the opinions 
concerning them. 


ELEMENTS OF VALUE RECOGNIZED 


Frequently one person expressed more than one reason for 
his opinion. Apart from the blanket commendations of the 
agencies as constructive influences in general, their moral values 
were stressed more often than any other. This is shown, for 
an aggregate of 747 formally rendered judgments concerning 
the agencies, in Table XCV. 

The agencies are supported by public opinion primarily be- 
cause of the belief that they build up the character of the rural 
youth, The next most frequent reason given was the recog- 
nition of their recreational values; then of their religious, 
social, civic and community-serving aspects in a descending 


IS THE WORK WORTH WHILE? 157 


scale. The most adequate general statement of what the people 
think the agencies amount to is this: They are character-build- 
ing influences, primarily by means of their wholesome and 
constructive recreation, supplying minor values in the fields of 
religious, social and civic life. 


TABLE XCV—DISTRIBUTION OF VALUES ASCRIBED BY REP- 
RESENTATIVE CITIZENS TO LOCAL WORK OF THREE 


AGENCIES 
Boy 
Y.M.C.A. Scouts V.W.C.A. Total 

Values No. % No. 9% No. % No. % 
Generally constructive in- 

Drees creat cane ees chee Sood 29°. 21 189 26 
CAG at bel ees AA Sa eA Se 58) ls TEN aE 28. 21 160 21 
Mecreniinial)) /eAetss sees 66 20 40°15 5 4 Whe )15 
PeuetGtte 00 ogee ie dee mpi Bey Lee 187) 13 88 12 

SE ae Rags A Oe eg C/o 3 1 jit | 45 6 
REEMA Ses cele didi ase 5 ewthcs re ee 45 16 Sa he, SA ae? 
PCAONe Tt ura aks 2 1224. 10,254 4° nS 20 
Community service ....... 4 1 Geni 10 Z 20 3 
PST DAWCOL Mie ia ashe ooo. e 6 fe 0 0 10 7 16 2 
Development of leadership. 6 2 2 1 6 “h 14 7s 
isroup Hloyalty <n. 9.28) vse 3 1 6 2 4 3 13 2 
PP GUET MYL cee Nyiae bot ek shells 4 1 fa 1 5 4 11 1 

Bh Was eS Ris ale PA OUR fae Bele ea Aen 27 o 1 LOU 137 100 747 100 


A. consideration of the sources of the opinions rendered is 
interesting. Clergymen and school administrators were found 
to be the most discriminating and the severest critics, while 
women judged less generously than men.* 

It is more than likely that financial discontent furnished the 
real basis of some of the adverse judgments which alleged other 
reasons. This possibility is suggested in Table XCVI. 


FAVORABLE OPINION 


The following section attempts merely by catch words and 
broken sentences to indicate favorable specifications with re- 
spect to the work of the several agencies. 


Applause for the Y.M.C.A. 
The Young Men’s Christian Association is praised for the 
earnest spirit of its summer camps; because it holds boys for 


1P. 130. 


158 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


the church and reaches the young men with whom the church 
has failed; ‘it presents the ideal of service as an essential part 
of religion”; its summer conferences have repeated approba- 
tion; it develops students into Christians; it promotes Bible 
study; carries on specific pieces of religious work, like daily 
vacation Bible schools. In a number of cases it is said to have 
promoted Protestant church cooperation. 

In the moral realm it stands for clean athletics and fairness 
in sports. “It has brought a great change in the sportsman- 
ship of our high-school games.” It keeps boys out of temp- 
tation. Boys who have been Pioneers show the effect in their 
character when they enter high school. The Hi Y program 
helps school morale. “Y” influence reduces smoking in the 
high school. “Y’’ work teaches manners to boys who have 
been brought up in poor environments. 

The Young Men’s Christian Association program is fre- 
quently recognized by school administrators as well conceived 
educationally and falling in with the school process. It is said 
to stimulate scholarship. Numerous cases of its influence in 
sending boys to college were recorded. It directs the gang 
spirit constructively. In a considerable number of cases cul- 
tural service to the community, like the supplying of a lecture 
course, were mentioned. 

On the recreational side, the Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
ciation is regarded as helping in physical development and man- 
liness. Camps and hikes are praised. It organizes athletics 
constructively. Play-day festivals are frequently mentioned. 
Sometimes it affords clubrooms which are the headquarters of 
wholesome recreation for boys. 

The aspects of service most frequently expressed are those 
of helping in church services and community money-raising 
campaigns. Important social relationships are said to result 
from father and son banquets. “It makes the business man 
take a more responsible attitude toward boys.” 

The promotion of boys’ group life under good leaders is 
often praised. The discussion groups thus organized promote 
thoughtfulness. 

Other favorable comments are that the Young Men’s Chris- 


IS THE WORK WORTH WHILE? 159 


tian Association reaches older boys better than the Scouts do. 
It sometimes interests professional and business men in Bible 
study or systematic athletics. It fosters community gatherings. 
Among the most convincing testimonies offered have been those 
of fathers with respect to its helpfulness to their own sons, “It 
did much for my three boys.” 

Summarizing: the activities of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association most often approved are the father and son ban- 
quets, summer camps and conferences. This organization’s 
outstanding religious influence is the development of Christian 
leaders. Its strong effects in the realm of practical morals 
through recreational activities is stressed. It has kept many 
individuals in school and carried them on into higher educa- 
tion. Its technique for character-building through group life 
is good, and often secures high-grade leadership. 

An additional merit often noted by the investigator is that 
in a considerable number of cases its influence continues 
through a long period of years and that the professional corps 
of Young Men’s Christian Association has been notably re- 
cruited from the ranks of the rural work. 


Praising the Boy Scouts. 

The activities of the Boy Scouts most frequently commended 
are hikes and camps and participation in patriotic and civic 
celebrations. In the religious realm they are said to have helped 
Sunday school, and to have brought boys into the Sunday 
school. Scouting is widely regarded as a good supplemental 
feature in a church program. Its non-sectarian character and 
appeal to all classes is stressed. ‘The Scout oath,” says a col- 
lege professor, “is more religious than the modern ‘Y.’”’ 

Character-building in boys is regarded as the main value of 
Scouting. It teaches manliness, makes boys honest and honor- 
able. It helps school discipline. It promotes clean athletics. 
The Scout principles are high and there is noticeable effort to 
live up to them. Boys become independent, helpful and trust- 
worthy. That Scouting keeps boys from smoking is frequently 
noted. “Boys learn to help the needy and aged.” 

Commendation more technically expressed frequently says 


160 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


that Scouting carries the boys through the adolescent crisis; that 
it meets the demands of boy psychology. It is valued because 
it teaches thrift and handcraft. 

In its recreational program the values of physical develop- 
ment are very strongly stressed, while the merits of nature 
study have frequent mention. 

As involving the group organization, Scouting teaches team 
work. It prevents destructive gang activity. Property is said 
to be better respected in the community. “Scouting is demo- 
cratic in its influence in this snobbish community.” 

The civic aspects of social service are most often cited, and 
a large number of items are favorably commented upon, such 
as messenger service, assistance in Red Cross drives and finan- 
cial effort for other social agencies; clean-up week; police duty 
at parades and celebrations; acting as aids at county fairs; pro- 
motion of fire-protection campaigns; taking of school census. 

Summarizing: Scouting is regarded as a movement inculcat- 
ing moral idealism. It is suited to the nature of the boy and 
develops his character. It is particularly strong on the side of 
civic usefulness and in fitting the future citizen for his responsi- 
bilities. 


Virtues of the Y.W.C.A. 

The Young Women’s Christian Association was present in 
a smaller number of the counties surveyed, and consequently 
fewer opinions were secured concerning it. 

Its religious values are said to be the setting up of more 
refined and more spiritual standards of living, and the bringing 
of girls into helpful church relations. 

In moral development the building up of a sense of the girls’ 
responsibility is most often stressed. That the Girl Reserves 
improve the moral tone of high school is a very frequent testi- 
mony. Thoughtfulness toward the needy is a result of Young 
Women’s Christian Association training. 

Educationally speaking, stress on personal hygiene and home 
interests are most often mentioned. The Young Women’s 
Christian Association is said to provide healthy amusement; 
but its strictly recreational features are less often commended 


IS THE WORK WORTH WHILE? 161 


than might be expected. The group life of girls, and espe- 
cially the discussion groups are praised as conducing to re- 
sponsibility and thoughtfulness. In implied contrast with 
some other girls’ organizations, it is stated that the Young 
Women’s Christian Association inculcates democracy. 

Rather more than for the agencies for boys, commendation 
of the Young Women’s Christian Association relates to its 
service for specific classes. The organization of business 
women has frequent mention, as well as service for industrial 
girls. Its standardized costumes in the high school are said 
to help poor families. “It shows the sexes how to mingle in 
the right spirit.” In the realm of social service it teaches the 
girl to know her own community. It assists in church activi- 
ties, charity and social service. “It is the only agency reach- 
ing industrial girls.” Special phases of work like service in 
berry-pickers’ camps are sometimes indicated. 

Of the service activities of the Young Women’s Christian 
Association, those most appreciated are rest rooms, information 
service, cafeterias and girls’ camps. 

Summarizing; somewhat specialized values are outstanding 
in the commendation of the Young Women’s Christian Asso- 
ciation. It has left a stronger impression in its ministries for 
business and working girls and in community service than it 
has as an agency for what is regarded as the normal girl living 
at home. Personal ideals and gracious development of char- 
acter are widely recognized results. The development of in- 
telligence concerning women’s problems is also recognized, as 
is the democratic character of the movement. 


UNFAVORABLE OPINION 


Ninety-seven unfavorable opinions are not formally classified 
as the favorable opinions are. Statistically speaking, the num- 
ber of cases in which a given criticism occurs is relatively small. 
Often the uncomplimentary views were less dignified than the 
favorable ones and perhaps more often they were harder to 
state. Critical judgments are more original and less conven- 
tional than favorable ones; more subtle; sometimes more pro- 


162 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


found. It is also to be said that negation does not lend itself 
to orderly categories. 


Knocking the “Y.” 

The line of objections the Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion most often encountered is suggested by the following: It 
has no grip; it is lukewarm; not really alive; dead. These are 
some of the uncomplimentary pronouncements frequently en- 
countered. A not infrequent caricature of its annual cycle is, 
that it begins with a banquet, followed by a financial campaign, 
after which a series of clubs is organized, most of which lapse 
before the end of the year. The next year the thing is done 
all over again. There is little real continuity. 

Again, the “Y” is criticized because it assumes to supplement 
the church and Sunday school but does not really do so. It is 
regarded as parasitic and not really wanted, or needed, in addi- 
tion to the work of the churches. It is said to be “not very 
religious.” 

From the standpoint of the school, it is condemned because 
it is limited to the high school. It does not reach boys out of 
school. It embarrasses the school by attaching itself to a pro- 
gram into which it brings an element foreign to the original 
purpose. It does not attract the most virile boys. It works 
with boys who would be good anyhow and neglects the needy 
type. Other complaints are that it has only a narrow program, 
consisting chiefly of summer camps. It cannot control the boys 
who break furniture in the places in which they meet. The 
county organization does not reach local problems. The work 
in the several localities is intermittent. It is weak because of 
lack of facilities. All the boys care for is to have a good time. 


Badness of the Boy Scouts. 

Unfavorable opinions concerning the Boy Scouts include the 
following: They are not popular nor really useful, but are 
imposed upon the community by manufactured sentiment. 
Scouting does not last well. The results in character are nega- 
tive. The boys abuse property. The Scout oath is not kept. 
The program is not seriously nor well carried out. Civic in- 


IS THE WORK WORTH WHILE? 163 


fluence is slight. The type of boy who most needs help is 
not included. Scouting is secularized, and its influence con- 
flicts with that of the church. The boys are taken on Sunday 
hikes, which is improper. Local leaders are not satisfactory 
from the moral standpoint. “I don’t want my boy to be under 
a cigarette smoker.” Scouting does not reach the older boys, 
nor meet the boy problem of the community in its most difficult 
phases. 


Ungallant Opinion of the Y.W.C.A. 

The most frequent criticism of the Young Women’s Chris- 
tian Association was that the movement lacks a definite objec- 
tive and registers little actual accomplishment. It is too much 
in the air. Specific benefits are impossible to trace. 

The Young Women’s Christian Association does not reach 
the class of girls for whom it was organized, especially working 
girls. It is a mere social program. It lacks spirituality. “It 
is not so religious as the Young Men’s Christian Association.” 
It denies its essential Protestant character. “There is no ‘C’ 
in the Young Women’s Christian Association.” Its sociology 
is half-baked. Its groups have spasmodic organization and in- 
termittent existence. Its influence detracts from the churches 
and makes church allegiance secondary. It wields no adequate 
rural influence, and the neediest communities have the least 
help. It favors dancing. 


SUMMARY 


The cumulative evidence, though with considerable qualifi- 
cation and some dissent, is that the work is worth while. In 
this judgment the makers of the study concur with considerably 
greater heartiness, all things considered, than the communities 
have shown. ‘The attitudes of representative citizens are im- 
portant, but not final. Their communities are as much on trial 
before the bar of public opinion as the agencies are. Perhaps 
they should be more so. The field investigation discovered 
shocking and depressing cases of the war between age and 
youth, of general grouchiness on the part of communities, of 


164 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


what, from the standpoint of the study, looks like terrible theo- 
logical narrowness and unwillingness to recognize the religious 
significance of some of the profounder factors of human na- 
ture, to say nothing of petty and repressive ethical standards. 

Under such conditions any movement that tries to “turn the 
hearts of the fathers unto the children and of the children unto 
the fathers’ is bound to have a gloriously difficult time. 

Consequently, while admitting that the rural work of the 
agencies has not yet reached any very impressive dimensions, 
and while finding in it many traits that should be changed, the 
study concludes that it constitutes an important service to a 
considerable number of communities and their boys and girls, 
and that it is no mean asset to’rural civilization. The influence 
of the combined movement of the character-building agencies 
extends, of course, far beyond the 330,000 youth in organized 
groups, and the relatively brief period of human life they repre- 
sent. It organizes considerable numbers of adults in the service 
of youth and to a smaller extent for adult and general com- 
munity ends. 

Yet the largest claims for the importance of the work cannot 
hold that it is at all comparable with the magnitude of the 
problem of serving rural America. The field as a whole is not 
really occupied. It is because the laborers are so few that one 
has the greater inclination to say, ‘God bless anybody who is 
doing anything.” 

The total attack of the agencies on the problem is not great 
enough really to constitute a genuine preemption of the field. 
It still remains an unsolved question how the work is to be done 
on a larger scale. All the organizations and activities treated 
in the present study constitute only a set of experiments and 
examples of attempted adjustments between national and local 
forces. Nowhere do they point to an assured solution. The 
field has merely been illuminated. Nevertheless the study feels 
that it will not have been in vain if it can project into the arena 
of practical discussion the long series of questions it has raised 
—questions all of which can be compressed into one big final 
question; namely, how can the total work be done better in 
the future? 


CHAPTER XI, Continued 
TABLE 


TABLE XCVI—NUMBER OF ADVERSE JUDGMENTS REGARD- 
ING THE WORTH-WHILENESS OF THE WORK OF THE 
AGENCIES COMPARED WITH NUMBER OF CASES IN 
WHICH FINANCES ARE REPORTED “POOR” 


Number of 
Independent 
Aggregate Times Finances Opinions that 
Number of Reported Poor Work Was Not 


Unfavorable in the Same Worth Its 
Agency Opinions Territory Financial Cost 
RO Lc Ue OO a 144 32 6 
I oat pe ton a) | iene ae ae a 65 14 9 
POOVY RPA AA ee Digs he feces 39 14 5 


165 


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PART II: DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 


ers 
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PART II: DISCUSSION AND 


CHAPTER XII 
ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 


As indicated at the outset, it was fundamental to the theory 
of this study that its results should be submitted to thorough 
criticism and discussion before final formulation; and that its 
final conclusions and recommendations should be reached 
through this sifting process. A long series of interviews with 
representatives of the agencies and advisors culminated in the 
two findings conferences already alluded to.t_ Previous to these 
conferences the complete statistical data of the report had been 
put in the hands of the agencies, together with a manuscript 
of interpretation embodying the substance of this report and 
much more expanded documents dealing with presuppositions 
and recommendations. Formal criticism in writing was in- 
vited. The findings conferences had before them this entire 
body of material. The conclusions of the investigator were 
then summarized, verbally amplified and discussed topic by 
topic. The discussion was naturally selective, some topics evok- 
ing much more interest and difference than others. About 115 
illuminating judgments or formally expressed attitudes of par- 
ticipants were recorded in the minutes of the conferences and 
considered in the revision of the report. 

There was little challenge of the facts as discovered; and the 
only serious criticism of presentation was that the verbal ex- 
planation did not always bring out all discrimination among 
agencies which the data showed. Upon matters of interpreta- 
tion and conclusions quite radical differences of opinion natu- 
rally discovered themselves. 

Of course such a result was to have been expected. Neither 
the author of the report nor any participant in discussion ap- 


1 Preface, p. x; and Appendix, p. ane 


170 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


proached the data with an entirely blank mind. Each one 
inevitably brought to its consideration numerous tacit assump- 
tions and working hypotheses and convictions. Under such 
conditions, evidence, limited both in amount and scope—and 
confessedly not touching all pertinent aspects of the field of 
investigation—could only point to certain presumptions and 
raise further problems. It could not yield an extensive set of 
coercive conclusions. 

One of the chief objects of discussion as formally provided 
for in the findings conferences was to develop the predeter- 
mined positions of the participants, to discover the assump- 
tions implicit in them, and to get them confessed. Only so, it 
was believed, could the emergence of major issues be explained 
or the attitudes adopted toward them and toward concrete sug- 
gestions involving action, be understood. 

Making the data, problems and recommendations actually 
presented to the findings conference its point of departure, 
Part II of this report undertakes to present these assumptions, 
issues and reactions in the terms of their actual disclosure and 
development. 

In other words, it is a narrative of the course of discussion 
as well as an exposition, culminating in statements of degrees 
and kinds of agreement or disagreement reached. The study 
thus goes beyond a mere investigation of the work of the 
agencies. It ends by being a report upon the minds of the 
representative group participating in the discussion. 

The first step is to bring out the most general attitudes of the 
participants and to trace them to their underlying assumptions. 
This is the theme of the present chapter. 


GENERAL ATTITUDES 


Among those who, first and last, were concerned in the for- 
mulation of the study, six distinguishable attitudes of the more 
general sort were traceable. These constitute a series as 
follows: 

(1) That such work as the character-building agencies do is 
not worth undertaking and should not be undertaken for boys 
and girls anywhere, 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS fe 


(2) That it should be undertaken for city boys and girls, 
but not for rural ones. 

(3) That it should be undertaken for rural boys and girls, 
but not primarily or to a permanently significant extent through 
the national agencies under consideration. 

(4) That it should be undertaken for rural boys and girls 
through the present national agencies loyally identifying them- 
selves with local communities and subject to such correction of 
method as the facts of the study might point out, especially in 
the direction of better cooperation. 

(5) That it should be undertaken for rural boys and girls 
through the present national agencies, with only such regard 
for local communities as may be necessary to make the work 
of the individual national agencies successful. 

(6) That it should be undertaken for rural boys and girls 
through a totally new national agency founded upon a more 
inclusive idea of coordinate national and local cooperation, be- 
cause it is hopeless to expect the present agencies to reform. 

Of these six positions the first and two last were only held 
exceptionally. The world at large, however, undoubtedly holds 
multitudes of people who regard the entire vision and task 
of the agencies as mere “kid stuff,’ and are ready to use any 
show of unreason on the part of the latter as grounds for dis- 
missing the whole matter with contempt. To brand this as 
cynical ignorance of the issues of boy and girl life does not 
make it any less serious as a factor in an adverse environment. 

At the other extreme, by revulsion from the self-confident 
and headstrong position which some of the agencies appeared 
to reveal in discussion (Number 5 above), a counter proposal 
was provoked; namely, to scrap all of the existing agencies and 
to begin a new nationally promoted work for boys and girls 
from the ground up. 


THE MOST PREVALENT ATTITUDES 


Disregarding such views as extreme, it is necessary to take 
serious account of three divergent positions more widely held. 
These may be elaborated as follows: 


172 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


(1) That it is impossible to do much of anything for the 
rural boy and girl through any attempted mobilization of 
national resources. This view held that rural life is under per- 
manent and irremediable handicaps, and that the accident of 
being born in the country makes it hopeless for youth to expect 
the same advantage that its urban contemporaries have and 
take for granted. 

(2) That the work for rural boys and girls should be left 
to the present forces commonly existent in such communities. 
This view had its more optimistic and more pessimistic ver- 
sions. According to the first, no special national effort for 
rural youth is necessary because rural life is fairly self-sufficient 
and the processes of improvement already naturalized and 
widely operative in the country are all that is necessary. Ac- 
cording to the more urgent view, the enlistment of suitable 
men and women for personal leadership of boys and girls, the 
organization of boys and girls in natural age- and sex-groups 
and the carrying on of a set of constructive activities congenial 
to the spirit of youth, are indispensable services requiring spe- 
cial attention; but properly they belong to the indigenous rural 
agencies, especially to the church and school. 

(3) That the present national agencies have made a good 
start and have shown large capacity for leadership of boys’ and 
girls’ work. According to this view, the call of the nation to 
help the country is clear and absolute. The first line of respon- 
sibility is indeed held by those agencies already most deeply 
rooted in the rural community, namely, churches, schools and 
organizations growing out of agriculture and the peculiar social 
life of the countryside. Whatever other agencies are mobilized 
in behalf of town and country youth must learn to codperate 
with these already bearing primary responsibility and already 
in possession of the field. But, on the other hand, the in- 
digenous agencies are too weak to succeed alone. There must 
be a partnership of local and national effort for the boys and 
girls of rural America. 

Defining the matter more concretely, those holding the second 
and third positions, as just stated, tended to fall into three 
rather distinct groups; namely, partisans of the church, parti- 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 173 


sans of the agencies, and the rural sociologists occupying a 
mediating position. Those whose antecedents and official alle- 
giance were with and to the church almost uniformly wished 
to make it the center of the improved rural character-building 
processes. They were consequently more impressed by the evi- 
dence of the weakness of the agencies than by any signs of their 
strength and serviceableness. 

The representatives of the agencies were naturally loyal to 
their positions and relationships, with sorne possible tendency 
to minimize the integrity of the local community. The sociolo- 
gists did not see why, with reasonable compromise, the two 
positions could not be combined and the values of both con- 
served. 


THE POSITION OF THE REPORT 


This latter is essentially the position of the study, one which, 
it is confessed, has been implicit throughout its process and con- 
clusions. It was presented, however, with the following neces- 
sary qualifications and refinements: 

(1) The possibilities of nationally organized boys’ and girls’ 
work—at least in its most characteristic form; namely, local 
group or organization—do not apply to the whole field of rural 
life. The distribution of rural population makes such a result 
impossible.” The human material necessary to constitute a 
directed boy and girl society is not found in the average rural 
neighborhood. The average social group in which country 
people live is not large enough for proper organization, either 
spontaneous or directed. Thus the organized groups of the 
five national agencies studied average twenty members.* This 
may be taken as a normal unit as determined by experience. 
But (upon evidence already presented) 75 per cent. of all rural 
communities either have centers in hamlets of 250 people or 
less, or are Open-country communities without any center at 
all. Sixty per cent. of all rural population lives under such 
conditions.* The average hamlet community would then have 

@Table XVIII. | 

3P, 58, 

4Table XVIII. 


174 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


just about twenty boys and twenty girls of the age suitable 
for development through group organization and actually 
reached by the agencies in communities where they are present. 
Since it is practically impossible ever to reach 100 per cent. 
of the youth population, the available hamlet group is too 
small; while the average boy and girl group of the open-country 
community is absolutely too small. In other words, the com- 
munities in which the majority of rural people live have an 
insufficient population basis to provide for the normal develop- 
ment of youth through group organization. Hundreds of thou- 
sands of one-room schools have an insufficient number of boys 
and girls either to form spontaneous groups for self-education 
or to form groups under leadership, even if leadership were 
present, as it conspicuously is not. There are not enough boys 
to make a ball team, nor girls enough for a successful corn or 
canning club. With so slight a range of selection, it is im- 
possible for a large number of these communities to find a 
really first-class school director or an efficient president for a 
farmers’ club. School grading is impossible. There are not 
enough different kinds of temperament, either among boys and 
girls or among men and women, to afford satisfactory or stimu- 
lating companionship. There are not enough men of like 
interests to undertake specialized enterprises depending upon a 
common fund of experience, for example, like stock breeding. 
There are not enough consumers to make any form of co- 
operation economical. Finally, there is not sufficient range of 
selection in choosing a husband or wife. This is what under- 
taking rural social life on the basis of too narrow a neighbor- 
hood means. 

(2) Meeting positively the issues raised by Chapter ITI,® the 
report held that there are large areas of rural civilization as 
thus organized into which nationally promoted boys’ and girls’ 
work can penetrate only by permeation of ideas. The real 
solution must be a gradual regrouping of rural people in larger 
numbers, either around centers or around more commanding 
open-country institutions. Yet even as rural society is now 
organized, permeating ideas resulting in spontaneous local or- 


oP els 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 175 


ganization can be pushed very much farther than at present. 
Such organization will be often short lived, unstandardized, yet 
many times vital and functionally effective. Stimulating and 
assisting it at long-range constitutes one of the greatest per- 
manent uses of the national agencies. 

(3) There remains the still more limited possibility of terri- 
torial organization with intensive supervision, under conditions 
and relationships which the later development of the discussion 
brings out.°® 

With these qualifications, and in this sense, the report as- 
sumed a positive advocacy, in their rural work, of the national 
agencies which it investigated, and posited its recommendations 
upon this position. 


UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS 


Actual discussion allowed many of the prevailing positions 
as described above to be traced back to their parallel or under- 
lying assumptions. Two sorts of assumptions naturally ap- 
peared: (1) those growing out of the particular function of 
the agencies as actual promoters and executives of the work 
under investigation, and hence peculiar to them; and (2) those 
growing out of a generally favorable attitude toward work for 
rural boys and girls and open both to its active participants and 
its friends. 


ASSUMPTIONS PECULIAR TO THE AGENCIES 


Of assumptions peculiar to the agencies, the discussion most 
completely revealed two: (1) the assumption of a moral or 
religious “call” to the work; (2) the assumption of great or- 
ganizational importance and authority. 


The “Call” to the Work. 

At the May, 1924, conference, Dr. Warren H. Wilson some- 
what whimsically proposed that the entire conception of rural 
character-building effort for boys and girls be resolved into 


OP 193. 


176 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


the presence in the world of a limited number of people who 
feel an “inner urge” or “call of God” to do such work. People 
moved by deep conviction, he said, always find other people 
ready to pay their bills. The agencies are merely the mechani- 
cal and fortuitous expression of these vital facts. The fact on 
which to focus understanding, therefore, is the existence of a 
set of people possessed by a strong sense that work for boys 
and girls is committed to them to do. 

Discussion pointed that there is a secular idealism involved 
as well as a religious one, and that the impulses of socially- 
minded people bear the same generic marks of inner warmth 
and conviction. There was general agreement that a strong 
element in the situation is the power of self-evidencing altruistic 
motive toward rural people. Rural communities cannot be left 
to their own self-complacency, and indigenous agencies are not 
alone in responsibility for their own boys and girls! 


Organizational Importance and Authority. 

The assumption of great organizational importance and au- 
thority was occasionally expressed crudely, as when the national 
policies of one of the agencies were cited as settling some im- 
portant problem of rural organization. For the most part, 
however, they were more subtly manifest, expressed piecemeal, 
forced into the open in the stress of discussion and appealed to 
on particular issues rather than as general platforms. 

Discussion made it very evident, however, that the special 
call of some of the agencies is regarded by them as very 
authoritative, and that they feel that they are very distinct from 
others both in spirit and in technique.’ It is not enough, 
therefore, to entrust communities with their ideas and allow 
them to be adapted to local uses. There must be insistent, face- 
to-face leadership, the inculcation of particular methods and 
the development of a special constituency bound together by a 
peculiar coloring of inner experience. Except for temporary 
and merely strategic modifications, the work as formulated by 
the agency must be adopted all in all or not at all. 

It was pointed out that this is virtually a sectarian position, 


7 See pp. 142, 149. 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 177 


and that the attitude of the agencies is sometimes perilously like 
that of the competing religious denominations in the rural field, 
except that the denominations have now gone further than the 
agencies in cooperative adjustments. 

In the main, however, it was recognized that such over- 
insistence upon the special viewpoints of organizations would 
find its first corrective in the better motives and more liberal 
impulses of their representatives themselves. The appeal was 
from Philip drunk to Philip sober. Instead, therefore, of in- 
sisting that these representatives were disqualified from com- 
mon counsels by reason of their peculiar loyalties, it was 
assumed that, in large measure at least, thinking in common 
terms was possible. 


GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS 


The realm of assumption open to all interested in boys’ and 
girls’ work includes both the fields of sociological and of psy- 
chological thinking. 

Discussion of postulates from these fields threw into relief 
certain differences of opinion concerning the following issues: 

(1) Are rural boys and girls under special handicaps as to 
personal and social development which it is the task of char- 
acter-building agencies to remove? 

(2) Is nationally organized promotion of work in rural 
communities a legitimate measure of social development; and, 
if so, what sort of promotion is legitimate? 

(3) How important in human development is the group 
organization of adolescents? 

(4) How able are indigenous rural agencies to do the work 
for themselves? 


RURAL HANDICAPS 


As bearing on the alleged handicaps of rural boys and girls, 
the study assumed that the normal development of the human 
spirit requires means of socialization not generally provided 
by town and country life. The isolation of the American farm 


178 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


is commented upon by virtually all sociologists as extreme and 
unnatural. Man developed his human characteristics in a vil- 
lage environment; but the American village has become seri- 
ously distorted in its human composition and is increasingly 
robbed of its older functions by city and town. It less and 
less affords wholesome and desirable environment for the de- 
velopment of character, and there is need of special corrective 
attention in both village and open country to the problems and 
crises of youth. 

A general background for this position was found in well- 
known tendencies of current rural philosophy such as that of 
Prof. Charles J. Galpin. From his standpoint “the most sig- 
nificant deficiency and handicap in farm life is a restricted con- 
tact with the human mind” incident to rural isolation. “Human 
contacts, more human contacts and still more human contacts 
is the slogan remedy of the problem of rural social organiza- 
tion.” “The solution of each special social problem will be 
challenged with the test of ‘more contacts.’ ” ® 


RURAL COMPENSATIONS AND RESOURCES 


In holding this position it was not meant to deny certain 
obvious and frequently emphasized compensations of rural life. 
On the whole, however, it was affirmed that there is a certain 
deficiency of development in rural adolescence as judged by the 
best qualified students. Vital experiences are unduly retarded 
or permanently obliterated.® Of special social evils to which 
rural youth is subject, a brooding preoccupation with sex, and 
the frequency of coarse companionship in limited neighbor- 
hoods where selection is impossible, are often stressed. 

A modifying view was somewhat earnestly presented in dis- 
cussion; namely, that an equivalent or perhaps a better method 
of character development is present in the simple relations of 
the rural home and neighborhood; and that all essential handi- 
caps could be removed if the better possibilities of these rela- 
tions were realized. This, in some minds, minimized the im- 


8 See Galpin, Rural Life, pp. 41-60. . 
9 See Alexander, The Teens and the Rural Sunday School, pp. 33-40. 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 179 


portance of the national agencies in their attempt to furnish 
rural leadership for the constructive activities of boy and girl 
society. 

No absolute agreement was reached upon the degree of 
handicap which rural boys and girls are presumed to suffer. 
The trend of opinion was, however, that herein lies a real call 
for work such as that of the agencies. Its broad justification 
is that it helps to equalize human opportunity for the less 
favored populations and communities of America. 


INTERACTION OF CITY AND COUNTRY 


As to national promotion and aid, the study urged that there 
is a natural and inevitable process of interaction between city 
and country which should have its counterpart in deliberate 
helpful action; that the policy of national stimulus of rural 
communities is well-established in the economic, educational 
and religious fields; that the average rural community and rural 
society as a whole is too undeveloped and feeble to furnish 
social development for its people merely through resident 
forces, while, on the contrary, many such communities have 
gladly organized their youth under the banner of the agencies 
quite in advance of or apart from their promotional efforts.” 

Criticism of this position indicated that some were loath to 
accord to relatively small and new rural forces, like the agencies, 
the right to operate on theories and sanctions well-established 
by older movements in defense of their own work. On the 
other hand, others voiced a definite argument for a system of 
financial subsidies for character-building work, in the needier 
rural regions and communities, somewhat analogous to de- 
nominational home mission aid.** 

On the whole, the trend of assumption seemed to be that 
there is a certain normal circular movement by which the city 
absorbs much of the most virile population of the country. The 
city is the theater of its further development and success. Here 

10 P, 39. 

11 Warren H. Wilson, Report of the Commission on Town and Country 


Work to the National Council of the Young Men’s Christian Association (New 
York; Association Press, 1925). 


180 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


people of rural origins gather up the money, the ideas, and the 
positions of major influence. It is only fitting and right that 
the city should, in return, project itself helpfully (if it can) 
into the problems of the country; not only by promotion of 
organized social ideals, but by such financial provision as will 
aid in the solution of the problems. This is only the indirect 
coming home to the country of its sons and daughters. 


IMPORTANCE OF GROUP ORGANIZATION 


On the question of the importance of the basic method of 
the work of the agencies for boys and girls; namely, group 
organization, the preliminary report expanded the position re- 
peatedly suggested in the text. It held that this method is of 
vast importance because it is a way of dealing with one of the 
major crises of human development, and that the common 
technique of the agencies constitutes a social discovery of the 
first magnitude. 

In the development of this position, the significance of the 
gang was greatly stressed. It was argued that what youth 
most needs is direction in working out its own salvation through 
the utilization of its own social tendencies. Joseph Lee was 
quoted approvingly. “In general,” he writes, “it should be said 
that this method, of developing the spirit of membership by 
utilizing the gang itself as the natural unit of development, is 
not an easy one, although it is being successfully practiced by 
the Boy Scouts and by many of the small-sized boys’ clubs and 
settlements. The soul of the gang is in its independence. Its 
aim is above all to be itself, the authentic outcome of the actual 
social spirit of its members, not the offspring of a foreign will. 
It is as wild as a pack of wolves and almost as hard to tame. 
And it cannot be caught by any lukewarm morality. Stories 
of the good boy who died, demands for the passive virtues of 
patience, resignation, blameless behavior, do not appeal to it. 
It is positive, masculine, demands rough work, will submit to 
no spirit less heroic than its own.” 

In general agreement with Mr. Lee, the report valued highly 
the attempt of the agencies to organize gang activity construc- 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 181 


tively, and to dramatize gang impulses, inducing them to work 
themselves off in mimic forms rather than in violent and ex- 
plosive feats. It urged that there is no other school like this 
for emancipating the human spirit, and that each generation 
must work out a social order for itself under its own leader- 
ship and within its own laws. The moral standards thus created 
are most exacting, making real and imperative demands upon 
their creators. They are highly concrete, vivid, immediate and 
compelling. These are the veritable foundations of moral life. 

Gang society is a transient experience, but it yields per- 
manent values. Its loyalties may be later transferred from 
the small group to the school and community, and its limited 
morals ultimately universalized. 

There is no road to personal and social character so effective 
and so broadly human as this; and the failure of society to 
utilize it in the education of boys and girls anywhere is a great 
loss and probably permanently deprives them of some part of 
their development of character. 


RESULTS OF NON-SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 


In rural society, the most serious results of such failure 
appear only in adult life. The non-social individualism that 
makes the adult farmer so often unable to cooperate, the petty 
self-will of the quarreling village community, the brooding over 
minor wrongs and insults, the social suspicion and jealousy, the 
frequent inferiority complex of the country man—all have 
their main origins in childhood that developed without the 
adequate discipline of spontaneous group life. Youth did not 
evolve its own moral standards because it was too much pressed 
upon by external authority and had too little society of its 
own devising. The results are the retired farmer opposed to 
community improvement, and the successful business man 
whose predatory instincts, rural-born in the overemphasized 
individualistic traits of childhood back in the country, were 
only sharpened by contact with acquisitive urban society. The 
bad man of urban civilization is thus frequently just the 
grown-up rural boy who had no opportunity to learn team 


182 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


play and was never a member of a society of youthful equals 
calling for social loyalty and the sacrifice of personal selfish- 
ness. No set of human contacts is more instructive or chal- 
lenging to a man of imagination than such dealings with youth. 
Very crude work, of briefest duration and with the slenderest 
comprehension of the forces inwardly conspiring to produce 
results, may have untold significance both for the youth who 
is led and for the assumed leader who thus comes upon human 
nature in so dynamic a moment and attempts its readjustment. 

The author is very sure of these things, not because he has 
spent the greater part of a year and several thousands of dollars 
in studying the work of the agencies in fifty-three representa- 
tive counties geographically. compassing the United States; but 
because forty odd years ago he belonged to a “Boys’ Circle” 
in a small lowa town, and because later for ten years as a 
pastor—before its modern technique and national relationships 
were developed—he tried to carry on boys’ and girls’ club work. 

On the basis of such experience, the report urged strongly 
that the kind of work which the agencies attempt fills a pro- 
found and dignified place in human development; though not 
in itself making provision for continuity of influence beyond 
the brief period of early youth. 


THE QUESTION OF CONTINUITY OF INFLUENCE 


As has previously been noted, certain agencies regard the 
development of a loyal and properly indoctrinated adult mem- 
bership as an essential part of their rural service, and as a 
necessary prerequisite of their normal work for youth.” In 
discussing the preliminary report, these agencies naturally 
sought to show that in this way they do supply the principle 
and means of continuity of influence. A member is supposed 
to progress from stage to stage of development from early 
youth to adulthood, always under the auspices of the particular 
agency. ‘This, it was held, is an important point of logical 
distinction between these and other agencies.*® 


12 P, 83. 
18 The attitude of the study toward this special argument has already been 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 183 


LACK OF A CLEAR-CUT PHILOSOPHY 


The main discussion as to the importance of the work of 
the agencies for boys and girls converged upon the question 
whether they had ever adequately defined their underlying 
philosophy. They were insistently asked, Just what is it you 
are proposing to do for American youth?—and were charged 
with inability to answer convincingly. 

The attempted answers ranged all the way from “Look in 
our manual’ to “Read the books classified under ‘The Woman 
Movement’ in the public library.”” Several representatives of 
agencies pleaded that they are only in the process of working 
out philosophies and hence have never written them down. 
There was a general tendency to feel that the theory of adoles- 
cent psychology as set forth in the preliminary report was 
somewhat too definite to serve as a statement of a common 
basis; and the matter was left with the sense that the agencies, 
while looking in the right direction, are unable to define exactly 
and pertinently either their practical differences or their theo- 
retical agreements or disagreements, 


ADEQUACY OF THE INDIGENOUS AGENCIES 


As to the adequacy of the indigenous agencies, the prelimi- 
nary report summarized their recognized shortcomings as 
revealed by previous objective studies as follows. 


THE RURAL CHURCH 


As an institution, the rural church is characteristically too 
small for effective work. It is inadequately supported, under 
a poor financial system. It is sadly lacking in strong, and 
particularly in residential, leadership and has poor working 
facilities. Its membership is largely stationary or declining, 
implied and expressed. It is a question how far the theory of continuity of 
influence through permanent adult memberships is, or can be, actually realized. 
Tt is also a question whether it is desirable to achieve continuity of influence 
through individual agencies. If all the agencies tried it and succeeded, would 


not rural society be encumbered with the equivalent of half a dozen addi- 
tional sects? 


184 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


while its work is frequently competitive and dependent upon 
outside resources, It has a characteristically narrow program. 
The majority of rural churches do not have services of worship 
even once a week. One-third of them do not have a Sunday 
school. Somewhat more than half have only organizations 
for women. 

As related to specialized organizations for boys and girls, 
the following comparison shows an overwhelming deficiency : ** 


Type of Per Cent. of 
Organization Churches Having 
WOMEN Sonar uk tale oe cen Olek Unies Bite eye oe Dod 
All sexesicombined 13/55. 2 73) as ae aac eee oa 35.7 
hd Citas de nea aed Gee PPM WE eMC nd et 1% ‘ke 5.3 
eH Beni cotad otis ocr be aan ae LE dee 3.7 
Boys sek etek deb Loris ee Ue eke nateneey ba 3.7, 


The average standing of rural churches on the scale of ef- 
ficiency developed by the Institute of Social and Religious 
Research is only 40.5 per cent.*° The conclusion of the rural 
studies of the Institute is “the greatest untouched field of 
Christian effort in rural America is the work for boys and 
girls.” 


THE RURAL SCHOOL 


Nearly half the nation’s children still attend schools essen- 
tially of the pioneer type. The United States Department of 
Education characterizes them as “laboring under distinct edu- 
cational disadvantages.” Their teachers are immature, in- 
experienced and little trained. The school year is short, 
enrollment frequently low, attendance irregular, the course of 
study badly planned and the subjects poorly taught, while 
financial support is meager. The average duration of the 
country child’s education in some of the more distinctly rural 
states is six and one-half years in villages and less than five 
years in the open country. 

14 Cf. p, 54. 


ee are and Brunner, The Town and Country Church in the United States, 
Pp. ° 


ATTITUDES AND ASSUMPTIONS 185 


FARMERS’ ORGANIZATIONS 


A recent investigation by the Federal Council of Churches 
shows that farmers’ codperative organizations have as yet made 
little contribution to community life as such.*® 

In brief, the results of all the indigenous forces of rural 
America put together are painfully inadequate. And no one 
else is seriously attempting to render the particular quality of 
service which the national character-building agencies have 
undertaken. 


NATIONAL VERSUS INDIGENOUS AGENCIES 


This statement of the deficiencies of the indigenous agencies 
seems to leave a great place and responsibility for the national 
agencies. But the deficiencies quoted are based upon averages 
derived from the rural situation as a whole. In the main they 
tell the shortcomings of the communities into which the agencies 
themselves have not gone. The agencies, especially in their in- 
tensively organized phase, have made relatively little headway 
in radically rural territory. Their very strong affinity for 
larger towns and small cities was earlier discovered.** But the 
conditions in these places are very much better than the average 
of the total rural situation. For example, 15 per cent. of the 
town churches have special boys’ organizations and 20 per cent. 
have special girls’ organizations, while more than half of the 
small city churches have boys’ organizations and a third have 
girls’ organizations. The town and small city school is also 
a very different institution from the purely rural school char- 
acterized above in so unflattering terms. The much better 
showing in such communities partly reflects the presence in 
them of the very national agencies being studied, often in co- 
operation with church and school. But the larger towns and 
cities are also better developed socially all along the line. 
Finding so much of the so-called rural work of the agencies 
in them, the report was forced to conclude that the agencies 


16 Landis, Social Aspects of Farmers’ Cooperative Marketing, p. 48. 
17 Chapter I III, 


186 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


like to go where they are least needed. Naturally too they 
all like to go to the same sorts of places. This frequently 
involves competition and other problems of adjustment.** 


TREND AND OUTCOME OF THE DISCUSSION 


Discussion of the four assumptions just considered ap- 
parently showed that they lead to the recognition of need of 
a work for rural boys and girls rather than to the work of the 
present agencies. It strongly stressed the failure of the 
agencies to demonstrate that they can succeed where church 
and school cannot. The relative inadequacy of all agencies in 
radically rural territory was.conceded; but it was denied that 
the agencies have a right to postulate this failure as a reason 
for their own existence when they have not shown conspicuous 
success in this field. 

Concluding the discussion of attitudes and assumptions, the 
findings conference of February, 1925, entered a consensus of 
judgment that it is correct for the report to confess the in- 
vestigator’s conviction of the great possible and actual values 
of the rural work of the agencies. On the other hand, it was 
agreed that it should be frankly stated that permanent differ- 
ences of opinion existed in the advisory group as to the ulti- 
mate social importance and justification of the work, and the 
auspices and conditions under which it should be conducted. 

This acknowledged disagreement on basic assumptions was 
inevitably carried over into the further consideration of specific 
issues. 


18 P, 132. 


CHAPTER XIII 
MAJOR ISSUES 


Some of the questions naturally raised by the data of the 
study have been suggested at the end of the successive chapters 
of Part I. There was not time to discuss all of them in the 
findings conferences, nor were all suited for discussion on such 
occasions, 

The answers of some of these questions, as previously recog- 
nized, were determined by the assumptions of the respective 
participants to such an extent as made discussion impertinent.’ 
Others pertained to the local characteristics of the work and 
were somewhat apart from the collective point of view of the 
national representatives constituting the advisory group. A 
certain sense of priority and major importance also governed 
the choice of issues for discussion, 

By common consent three issues were outstanding as national 
problems of organized work for boys and girls, involving large 
social policies as well as the basic responsibilities of central 
administrations; namely, those of occupancy, naturalization 
and adjustment. Subsidiary financial and administrative prob- 
lems attached themselves to these major issues and were chiefly 
discussed in connection with them. 

Silently accompanying the consideration of these three issues, 
never brought into the focus of acknowledged discussion, yet 
never out of the several minds concerned, was the issue pre- 
sented by the qualitative standards of work as individually 
cherished by the agencies. With all discourse upon the occu- 
pancy of wider fields, upon the profounder naturalization of 
the work in communities, or upon more desirable adjustments 
between agencies, went the unvoiced query: Can we do these 
things and still maintain the inner quality of our results as 
we conceive they ought to be? One recognizes this fourth 


1P. 172. 187 


188 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


issue as simply the further functioning of the sense of sanctity 
and importance of each agency’s mission and methods. It 
constitutes an inevitable issue, but one not susceptible of fruit- 
ful discussion in view of the divergent assumptions with which 
it is complicated. 

The present chapter deals with the three confessed major 
issues, and comes to terms at the end with the fourth and 
unspoken one. 


OCCUPANCY, 


The data of the study showed that relatively only a few boys 
and girls in a few places are reached by all the character-build- 
ing agencies combined. Only a little of the territory of the 
nation is covered by definitely organized work, and that frag- 
mentarily and with poor internal diffusion of actual units.? 

In the conference, there was no dissent from the assumption 
of the study that, at best, organized group-work for boys and 
girls is not likely to reach the smallest village and open-country 
communities generally; and no complete solution of their prob- 
lem was suggested apart from the radical reorganization of 
rural civilization.* On the other hand, it was agreed that there 
can be and should be very much wider occupancy of rural 
communities by the organized work of the agencies than at 
present, and that a larger proportion of the work should be 
definitely rural. 

As set forth in the preliminary report, occupancy of rural 
areas was considered in connection with four territorial and 
social units; namely, suburbs, large districts for non-intensive 
supervision, the larger rural independent communities, and 
counties or comparable districts. 


SEGREGATION OF SUBURBAN AREAS 


The first proposition laid down by the report was that the 
broad sector of American civilization treated by the agencies 


2 Chapter I, p. 33f., and Chapter III, p. 53 £. 
8 P. 58. 


MAJOR ISSUES 189 


under the classification of town and country work is too 
varied to be cultivated under a single policy or by a uniform 
method. As shown in Part I, much of the work labeled 
“rural” is really suburban, and where the option is present, 
the agencies show a strong tendency to cultivate the suburban 
at the expense of rural communities in the same area.* It was 
specifically recommended, therefore, that suburban areas should 
be cut off from the so-called rural field. Suburbs are urban 
in spirit and should be in method and policy. Except for some 
of the newer industrial suburbs, they already have a rich social 
development through imitation of, and overstimulus by, the 
city. No independent solution of suburban problems is pos- 
sible. They present an important, sound and unique field for 
the work of the agencies and one in which it is comparatively 
easy to succeed, since the suburbs enjoy the alertness, brains, 
leadership and money of the metropolitan communities to 
which they belong. But their problem is distinctly not rural.® 

The extensiveness of the suburban phase of the so-called 
rural work greatly impressed the advisory group, and it was 
bluntly charged that the agencies are not really occupying their 
ostensible field. Against this charge, it is fair to repeat that 
some of them have never undertaken to do distinctively rural 
work, and that others have changed the names of their special 
departments from “rural” to “town and country’ in recogni- 
tion of the facts discovered. 

The report did not directly develop the problem of suburban 
occupancy, since it was regarded as essentially an urban prob- 
lem, and since cities are already facing it in their own way. 
Not all the necessary administrative issues have as yet been 
clearly worked out, but the major factors are unmistakable and 
the direction of development from the center out is clear. The 





OP 524: 

5 The elimination of the suburbs, as presenting a distinct problem, greatly 
reduces both the total amount of the work previously classified as rural and 
its average success. These considerations undoubtedly explain the hesitancy 
of the executives of rural work in some of the agencies to acknowledge the 
distinctiveness of the suburban work. If they should do so, would not some 
one begin to suggest the administrative transfer of this phase to some other 
department than theirs, or the creation of a special department of suburban 
work related to cities? Of course this is not a necessary consequence, pro- 
vided appropriate methods are used in the different aspects of the work 
and their distinctive qualities recognized, 


199 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


purpose of cities to exercise social control over their construc- 
tive agencies, as, for example, through the Community Chest 
movement, is increasingly expanded to include the suburbs. In 
the judgment of the report, then, the only fair method of clear- 
ing the ground for a consideration of the rural work proper 
is to set the suburban phase apart for special treatment, if not 
for separate administration. 


LONG-RANGE PROMOTION 


As set forth in the report, the data strongly hint that the 
occupancy of rural territory should be, and will probably have 
to be, through long-range promotion to an extent far greater 
than the agencies are yet willing to acknowledge.° Somehow 
they must get into more of the characteristically rural places 
or else surrender the name and profession of rural service. 
Their most extensive and rewarding service for such communi- 
ties up to date has been through the broadcasting of the idea 
of organized work for boys and girls and the development of 
sporadic units through local initiative and without intensive 
supervision by the national agencies. Forty-six per cent. of 
all occupancies found in the fifty-three counties were of this 
sort. 


PRESENT METHODS OF LONG-RANGE PROMOTION 


The present methods of promotion through national and 
intermediate agencies that make this result possible were not 
directly investigated by the study. Some of the agencies are 
organized by states, others by districts. These intermediate 
agencies perform helpful services, but the area covered is too 
large to admit of the intensive supervision of local units. 
Examples are the district plan of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association as developed in Kentucky; the organization of the 
entire state of Vermont into four related districts by the Young 
Women’s Christian Association; and certain Boy Scout coun- 





6 P.-39 f. and 47 f, 


MAJOR ISSUES 191 


cils covering territory admittedly too large for close super- 
vision. 

Attached to these intermediate organizations are sometimes 
special agents like the Hi Y and Girl Reserve secretaries of the 
Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations 
respectively. In all these cases the size of the area served 
limits the functioning of the agencies to long-range stimulus 
and help, in contrast with active supervision. 

As revealed in discussion, the prevailing attitude of the 
agencies toward the whole body of work conducted on this 
basis, is that it is inferior in value and should be, if possible, 
merely temporary in character. In other words, the agencies 
condescend to the use of the method of long-range promotion 
as an entering wedge, or in order to render a less satisfactory 
grade of service to communities which they cannot reach in- 
tensively. But all are greedy for close territorial occupancy ; 
with the result that little of the rural area of America has been 
reached at all and that little not conspicuously well. 


SUPPOSED LONG-RANGE PROMOTION 


As proposed by the report, the agencies should now shift 
their policies so as to accept, as normal and as relatively per- 
manent for large areas and multitudes of boys and girls, the 
method of service by long-range promotion. Out of this 
method they should resolve to wring the very best results pos- 
sible. It has never yet had a fair chance at their hands. Not 
until it is recognized as the only way to reach a large fraction 
of the natural constituency of the agencies will its best possi- 
bilities be realized. 

It was not proposed to restrict at all the intensive develop- 
ment of organizable communities within areas set apart for 
long-range development, so long as their organization does not 
reduce, delay nor defeat the permeation of the territory as a 
whole by the best means at the command of long-range work. 

As a condition of the success of the method, it was urged 
that the territory chosen for such promotion should express 
some principle of social unity. It should be the trade area of 


192 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


a small city, a sector of the dependent territory of a large city, 
a topographical province, or at least a political district with 
some traditional identity. 


PRIMARY METHOD OF APPROACH 


The primary method of approach to people and communities 
within this area would be literary. Correspondence and the 
printed page is the only direct vehicle at present between the 
national agencies and the many sporadic units throughout the 
nation. Individuals previously connected with the agencies in 
other places are scattered in new homes throughout the nation. 
Publicity might search them out and make them the nuclei of 
group organization as they largely are already.’ 

It was also pointed out in discussion that various boys’ and 
girls’ periodicals, with no machinery of promotion beyond the 
printed page, have often gathered tens of thousands of enrolled 
members into shadowy organizations reflecting this and that 
interest. Commercial agencies promoting boys’ and girls’ agri- 
cultural club work marshal literally hundreds of thousands of 
alleged adherents primarily through long-range approach. A 
Lone Scout organization of considerable membership, to which 
a boy may belong “all by himself,” has very recently merged 
with the Boy Scouts of America and been put under a special 
committee of leaders especially identified with farmers’ move- 
ments. The Girl Scouts also recognize individual memberships 
of girls in scattered communities. 7 

These effective methods could be still further reénforced by 
the occasional contacts of field agents and specialists. The 
distinction between their relations and those of the supervisors 
would be that they are too far away and come too infrequently 
either to “boss” the work or to permit local responsibility to 
be shunted upon their shoulders. ~ 


THE PROBLEM OF FINANCE 


Discussion was quick to fix upon the problem of financing 
such long-range work. It was frankly admitted by the agencies 


* PL OS. 


MAJOR ISSUES 193 


that a strong motive for favoring intensive local organization 
is that it is self-supporting and pays an additional margin to 
the support of national machinery. In reply, the report pointed 
out that local support at present is not general nor well diffused, 
but depends chiefly upon a limited number of individuals, many 
of whom would be equally susceptible to cultivation under any 
method. It was also urged that the choice of a natural district 
would carry with it a ground of appeal to the financial forces 
that live and prosper within the district. It is always found 
possible, for example, to make an effective appeal for the sup- 
port of constructive forces within the trade area of a city. 
Sentimental and altruistic responsibility is felt by the wealth 
concentrated at the center, even where there is no confidence 
that there will be any direct returns. Furthermore, financial 
givers in smaller communities like to back that which has city 
prestige and leadership and which seems to link them in a 
common enterprise with people of importance. 

All these possibilities, it was argued, are available for the 
further development of long-range promotional work. Much 
actual interest in the suggestion was evinced by several of the 
agencies. The report strongly urged that they perfect and 
standardize this means of extension of occupancy, and attempt 
a much wider rural ministry in this way. The saturation point 
for this method, it was felt, is not nearly reached. 

The second findings conference voted to “‘call the attention 
of the respective agencies” to the possibilities of this method. 


OCCUPANCY THROUGH INTENSIVE ORGANIZATION 


The report urged an increase of intensive organization as 
well as long-range promotion. But in so doing it focused 
primary attention not upon counties and comparable districts, 
but upon larger independent rural communities. 

The basis of this action was the fact that, in the fifty-three 
counties studied, eight out of every ten towns of from 2,500 
to 10,000 population were already occupied by one or more of 
the agencies. This seems to point to communities of this size 
as a naturally predestined field of service. There are about 


194 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


2,050 of such communities in the United States with a popu- 
lation of about 9,600,000 within their corporate limits, and 
probably half as many more in immediately dependent rural 
territory. This identifies a total population of nearly fifteen 
million people whose boys and girls thus constitute a special 
field for cultivation. 


RELATION OF INTENSIVE TO LONG-RANGE OCCUPANCY 


Part I of the report inferentially reproved the agencies for 
neglect of the smaller incorporated and rural communities in 
favor of this very group. To recommend now that intensive 
cultivation start with it seems inconsistent, and will prove 
so if the method of long-range promotion first recommended 
is not genuinely and widely adopted. Otherwise it will result 
only in a further desertion of the most needy boys and girls. 
There is, however, a large rural population surrounding and 
dependent upon these communities. If, as is contemplated, 
it is actually, in every case, included with the town center in 
organization and cultivation, a far larger proportion of open- 
country boys and girls will be reached than at present. 


LARGER INDEPENDENT COMMUNITIES 


Other arguments in favor of beginning intensive organiza- 
tion with larger rural communities were offered, as follows: 

These are the most urgent and problematical communities 
in their special problems. Competition is most frequent here. 
On the other hand, the resources of such communities make 
them the most fruitful ground for experiment. 

Again, much of the present so-called territorial work is not 
really more than work in an enlarged community. In county 
after county, the actual permanent nucleus of organization and 
life was found virtually confined to the major town or county 
seat and outlying neighborhoods within its trade area. 

In a considerable number of cases, too, a genuinely county- 
wide organization has developed virtually independent sub- 
districts, each essentially corresponding to the larger com- 


MAJOR ISSUES 195 


munity of a good sized town, each having its own budget, 
and, theoretically at least, its own executive. In other words, 
in many supervised units now organized ostensibly on the 
county basis, the major portion of the present work has been 
resolved into separate community elements, and would be 
fully included under the proposed method.*® 

Organization by larger rural communities would thus be 
the more honest and, it is believed, the more helpful typical 
form of intensive organization. It could help outlying dis- 
tricts the more genuinely if freed from the fiction of wider 
territorial responsibility. It could focus upon a more adequate 
program for the local community, frequently centralizing in 
a permanent plant, becoming a community house and center. 
It would afford the agencies greater possibilities of flexibility 
for local uses if they were to become identified with a social 
unit that has the intense individuality and cohesiveness of a 
community, in contrast with the miscellaneous and ill-assorted 
territory gathered up by political accident within county bound- 
aries. 

Experience, as stated above, proves that organization vir- 
tually by larger rural communities frequently exists under the 
guise of broader territorial organization, and that it is some- 
times successful. There are also numerous examples of small 
communities already organized by the agencies apart from terri- 
torial units. There are, to be sure, numerous cases in which 
organizations in places of this size have failed; but no data 
exist to prove whether or not the ratio of failure is greater than 
in “county work.” 


THE ISSUE OF FINANCIAL SUPPORT 


One of the main difficulties anticipated in the organization 
of such small units was that of financial support. Numerous 
communities, however, are paying quotas to the support of 
several agencies which frequently mount up to more than the 


8 Orange County for the Young Men’s Christian Association, Santa Clara 
County for the Boy Scouts and Tulare County for the Young Women’s 
Christian Association (all in California) are cases in point, . 


196 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


cost of a full-time executive. The report, therefore, ques- 
tioned whether the problem is primarily one of support. As it 
analyzed the situation, one strong reason for the tendency of 
the agencies to resort to county organization is that the county 
lacks social unity. It is an area from which an aggressive 
agency can draw sufficient resources for support without hav- 
ing to come to intimate adjustments with local situations. The 
financial appeal comes near enough home to secure response; 
but not near enough home to raise the demand for full local 
control of the work, as it would if identified with a single 
community.® 

As an outcome of discussion on this issue—in addition to 
a fuller appreciation of values of the present organization of 
independent communities already organized—some of the 
agencies indicated a purpose to make fresh studies and experi- 
ments in the feasibility of such communities as a frequent pri- 
mary unit of organization. 


INTENSIVE SUPERVISION 


Though not recommended as the major method, a large place 
was left by the report for organized counties and comparable 
districts for intensive supervision. 


WHEN THE COUNTY UNIT IS JUSTIFIED 


In genuinely rural territory, where the county unit is already 
actually successful (in the sense that it is both firmly estab- 
lished and has actually developed a widely diffused service 
throughout the territory purporting to be covered), there was 
no disposition to doubt its value. There is far too little work 
all told to warrant any destructive attitude toward any part of 
it that is actually functioning well. 

For the future also, whenever a territory cannot be covered 


9 The author of the report confesses that one of his personal reasons for 
recommending the agencies to cultivate the larger independent communities 
is that he is sure that these communities will compel them to unbend, as 
the price of support. The agencies would have to adopt a more flexible 
attitude and be more willing to coéperate if they were dealing with self-con- 
scious social entities rather than with counties—but this is another story. 


MAJOR ISSUES 197 


by the development of independent communities with their 
trade areas (at least to a degree equal to the average attained 
under the ostensibly territorial method), and where something 
more than long-range promotion is possible, the report recom- 
mended the county or comparable unit of administration, pro- 
vided it constitutes a genuine social unit. 

These conditions are met by a variety of circumstances. 
Sometimes the trade area of a small rural city is virtually co- 
extensive with the county; but it is more strategic to name the 
organization for the county than for the city alone. 

As applied to the counties covered by the report, only twenty- 
nine of the fifty-three are rural. Of these, fourteen are unified 
to a considerable extent by the possession of a central com- 
munity larger and more commanding than any other. In these 
counties the central community might either be organized inde- 
pendently and allowed to make its legitimate outreach into 
the immediately dependent rural area (in which case it would 
include the most of the organizable population of the county), 
or the work might be organized on the county basis with con- 
sequences not very different. 


WHEN THE COUNTY UNIT IS INADMISSIBLE 


The remaining fifteen rural counties, on the contrary, clearly 
lack internal unity. Their communities find their major prac- 
tical relation in different directions and frequently beyond the 
borders of the county. Not infrequently their towns are bit- 
terly competitive. The attempt to make them into units of 
administration and support is clearly against the grain of social 
habit and behavior. 

All told, the position of the report is that the county unit 
is a significant residual basis of organization, but not the pri- 
mary or major one. Many of the failures of the past are 
believed to have been due to its unwise adoption under a tradi- 
tional and narrow policy. 


198 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


SUMMARY 


Summarizing the total problem of organized occupancy as 
presented and discussed, rather definite trends were revealed 
on the part of the agencies toward greater variety of adminis- 
trative units than in the past, or rather to the recognition that 
more kinds of valid rural work have grown up than had been 
realized, and than were recognized by the departmental labels 
and records of the agencies.*° There was also a sharpening 
of judgment as to when to use one kind and when another. 

By the combined weight of the several methods of pene- 
trating rural civilization, as described and discussed, the total 
occupancy of the field ought to be greatly increased, with 
proper regard for the quality of the work propagated. And 
while neither the study of the field nor contacts with head- 
quarters agencies seemed to predict any immediate landslide, 
the report gathered increasing confidence that time and patience 
will secure this result. 


NATURALIZATION 


The factual chapters of the report, particularly Chapters II, 
IV and V (together with Chapter XI which deals rather with 
opinion), have presented what was called the problem of the 
naturalization in the rural community of organized work for 
boys and girls. As outlined in the Preface ** and as presented 
directly to the agencies, it was hoped to help them to see the 
seriousness of their problem as relatively alien forces with 
other major tasks, approaching rural civilization from with- 
out. The crux of the problem as formulated is how to get on 
the inside, so as to become an accepted and permanent part 
of the situation. 

At this point the agencies most definitely revealed the as- 
sumptions explored in the previous chapter. They are acutely 
conscious that they are bringing an important contribution to 
rural life, both of vision and of technique. These gifts they 


10 Table VI, p. 41. 
11 P, viii. 


MAJOR ISSUES 199 


are under the necessity of promoting by some version of de- 
liberate organization, since, in the main, the work has not 
enjoyed the contagious spread of a spontaneous and self-propa- 
gating movement.” 

The facts as presented raised the essential issue of how such 
national agencies can enter into partnership with actual rural 
communities and their indigenous agencies on terms of actual 
mutual contribution to a common end, so that the communities 
become actually participants in the service of youth and no 
longer mere exponents and agents of values imported from 
without. 

The particular adjustments between agencies recognized as 
involved in this process constitute the theme of the following 
section. The present paragraphs confine themselves to the 
most general meaning and aspects of naturalization as presented 
in the report and discussed. 


DEFINITION 


Generalizing the various meanings emphasized by the field 
studies and recognized in the discussion, the conception of natu- 
ralization as offered in the Preface was elaborated and en- 
riched. The following paragraphs attempt to state the common 
ground that was reached.** 

Naturalization involves, first, that communities become 
habituated in the use and support of work for boys and girls 
as promoted by the national agencies, until it is taken for 
granted as a permanent element in their lives. 

Concretely, this means that the names of the agencies are to 
be recognized, the people backing them identified with the re- 
spective movements, and their activities popularly noted. 
Ordinarily there will be organized groups of boys and girls 

12 To some extent the spread of the Boy Scouts should be recognized as 
such a spontaneous movement. 

13 The following statement recognizes only that part of the discussion 
which assumed that the agencies have a nation-wide rural responsibility, and 
that occupancy ought to be greatly extended. Discussion of naturalization by 
those opposed to further occupancy was, of course, gratuitous. In other 
words, discussion which postulated that ‘“‘the work naturally belongs to the 


church,” etc., and that the agencies are interlopers, was properly ignored 
from this point on. 


200 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


under the responsibility of local leadership, and usually more 
than one group. 

Where territory larger than the single community is in- 
volved, as in typical county or comparable district organization, 
the work will similarly be taken for granted, though often to a 
less pronounced degree. But the real essence of naturalization 
has to do with individual communities. In any given area, it 
therefore rests back upon satisfactory occupancy of places. 
If territorial organization is attempted, there must be a reason- 
able degree of diffusion throughout contiguous communities— 
otherwise the work is not genuinely naturalized. 

In becoming habituated to the work, it is implied that the 
communities are genuinely aroused to the more adequate point 
of view of the national organizations and that to some extent 
they actually assimilate its vision and standards. The national 
relationships of the work will be recognized as valuable, cor- 
dially accepted and followed. Financial support will come to 
be somewhat widely distributed. 

A reasonable realization of this series of conditions would 
seem to describe what could fairly be called naturalization in 
fact. 


INCOMPLETE NATURALIZATION EXPLAINED 


The data presented in the report seemed to show that even so 
modest an ideal was very incompletely realized in the sample 
territory investigated. On this conclusion, no serious chal- 
lenge was voiced. The report, however, brought to the dis- 
cussion of the problem a series of mitigating considerations 
which may be summarized as follows: 

(1) Naturalization has frequently been attempted with poor 
units of organization.** Under these conditions it could not 
expect to be very successful. 

(2) It has frequently been concerned with oversmall and 
socially impoverished communities. 

(3) Lapse of organization, which has been terribly frequent, 
has not always meant lapse of the underlying idea. Sometimes 


10 2110, 


MAJOR ISSUES 201 


communities have shown great persistence in repeatedly re- 
establishing work when it has died down for lack of material 
or leadership. The report particularly insisted that the fact of 
lapse does not itself preclude true naturalization. 

(4) The brief time during which most of the work has 
existed, together with (5) admittedly abnormal conditions 
following the World War, are additional considerations which 
should modify the judgment as to the success of the naturali- 
zation process. 

The discussion in the main recognized the justice of these 
mitigations and hinged upon more refined attitudes going be- 
yond the definition as above proposed. 


FURTHER ASPECTS OF NATURALIZATION 


It was implied, for example, that naturalization alone gives 
no assurance of valuable results. A good deal of the work 
of the world goes on because it has a traditional place in some 
organization or community. There is a committee that is 
expected to report something done at the end of the year. It 
is an established interest and preempts space on the docket and 
in the budget. Much of the “naturalization” involved in the 
housing, leadership and sponsorship of work for boys and girls 
has unquestionably sunk to this level of habit. It has the 
permanence of inertia rather than of vigorous conviction. 

In protest against this kind of naturalization, was the feeling 
of the agencies, on the one hand, that they have an evangel in 
behalf of youth which it is laid upon them to inculcate. The 
somewhat visionless and stupid communities of rural America 
must be saved even in spite of themselves. A study of the 
functioning of national agencies in cities has recently pointed 
out that they can no longer maintain such attitudes with re- 
spect to the self-conscious and more or less competent urban 
communities of America.” But the view was at least implied 
that the towns and open-country communities are incapable of 
what, from the urban standpoint, might be called a normal 





15 Lee, Pettit and Hoey, Interrelation of the eG of National Social 
Agencies in Fourteen American Communities, p. 29 f 


202 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


reaction or response. In other words, this view stressed 
strongly that the controlling element in the partnership was that 
of the national agencies.** 

A somewhat different view already recognized *’ believed 
itself to be a corrective of this tendency to minimize the rights 
and participation of the local community. It held strenuously 
that genuine naturalization should be realized; but felt that this 
requires the development of a special constituency and local 
membership of its own sort within communities. This ad- 
vocacy of more adequate measures for getting on the inside of 
the community situation is obviously praiseworthy. But the 
report felt unable to commend the particular method. It affords 
a good solution of the problem of naturalization; but seems to 
render impossible the adjustments still to be considered, since 
for all the agencies to adopt it would result in further sub- 
division of the small community into separate membership 
groups. ‘The evidence of field studies fails to show that the 
development of local memberships actually produces any values 
not secured by the ordinary methods of sponsorship already 
described. So far as the discussion went, the aspiration for 
a profounder naturalization in communities was welcomed; but 
the majority of participants were not convinced by the only 
highly specific suggestion of a method for reaching this end. 


UNSOLVED ISSUES 


Other aspects of the problem incidentally raised by the dis- 
cussion, but not fairly met, included the following: 

(1) In the case of the character-building work for boys and 
girls, has not naturalization in the local community been made 
abnormally difficult by the fact that all the agencies conduct 
the work virtually on a non-equipment basis? They are in 
sharp contrast with most of the institutions of the community, 
which find an important condition of permanence in the pos- 
session of property and the sentiments and responsibilities at- 
tached thereto. Even with so fundamental an institution as 


16 P, 171, 
17 P, 83. 


. 


MAJOR ISSUES 203 


the family, the stabilizing significance of common possessions 
is generally recognized. This consideration reénforces the 
opinion voiced by a small minority that special buildings and 
equipment would add greatly to the permanence as well as to 
the effectiveness of the local work.*® 

(2) The paradox that the idea of organized work for boys 
and girls may be well naturalized in a community which at the 
same time will not accept such work under intensive super- 
vision, was not fully resolved. It is obvious, however, that the 
two situations differ essentially. A well-established and per- 
sistent set of boys’ and girls’ groups held under local initiative 
and sponsorship may not be increased, but may even decrease, 
when a paid supervisor is imposed upon the situation. Excep- 
tional cases were found in which those longest identified with 
a given agency were waiting for its territorial organization to 
fail in order that they might keep on with the work in the 
form which they thought more desirable.” 

(3) In the discussion of financial support relative to natu- 
ralization, it remained a moot question whether getting the 
work more deeply rooted within, and more sympathetically 
under the control of local communities, would unlock resources. 
This question is evidently related to the foregoing one. Agree- 
ment was not reached as to whether greater naturalization 
would mean greater support. Sometimes it would mean less 
sense of need for support. Sometimes it evidently would reg- 
ister a conviction on the part of a community that it can operate 
its own work more economically than the requirements of the 
national agencies for intensive supervision. Provided, how- 
ever, a community is convinced that it wants a county execu- 
tive, it seems obvious that the more fully its agencies are identi- 
fied with its life the more support will be available. 

(4) Again, it remained an open question whether the most 
complete naturalization of a single agency operating for but 


18 This was one of the fundamental changes of policy recommended by 
the Report of the Commission on Town and Country Work to the National 
Council of the Young Men’s Christian Association (‘‘Wilson Report’), 1925. 
This report says that in the past the Young Men’s Christian Association has 
idealized a non-equipment type of work—‘a state of mind which the Com- 
mission finds unconvincing at the present time.” 

19 E.g., a church discontinued scouting “till the County Council dies,” 


204 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


one age- and sex-group in a community should be counted 
satisfactory. What is it that the American public seeks to 
accomplish through the national agencies? Is it not the better 
version of work for boys and girls? If so, is this ideal realized 
by the success of a single agency working for boys or for girls 
alone? 


SUMMARY 


The outcome of the discussion may fairly be said to have 
identified the problem of naturalization as presenting a genuine, 
essential and serious issue. Its outstanding characteristics are 
the frequent tendency of the agencies to be so inflexible as to 
aggravate the sense of their alien origin; and, on the other 
hand, the tendency of communities to be so self-complacent and 
intractable as to make partnership difficult. The essential dif- 
ficulties of the issue are great enough without further com- 
plication by competition among agencies within a given com- 
munity. This raises still another major issue, which constitutes 
the theme of the next section. 


ADJUSTMENT 


Although the problem of adjustment among national agencies 
consequent upon their simultaneous occupancy and attempt to 
become naturalized in communities was not frankly confronted 
and discussed, it was ever present as an underlying concern. 
Representatives of the agencies revealed considerable sensi- 
tiveness as to the degree of duplication revealed by the 
study and the attitudes and felt relationships growing out of 
it, 

Occasionally a defensive retort was made to the effect 
that, since so small a proportion of the total number of boys 
and girls of any organized territory are reached by all the 
organizations combined, there is always room for one agency 
more. The report was unable to see how such a position could 
be held sincerely by any one who had actual knowledge, from 
field contacts, of the perplexities, burdens and animosities fre- 


MAJOR ISSUES 205 


quently resulting from duplicate occupancy of communities. 
Even when the competitive flame is smoldering, it is always 
there ready to burst forth at slight provocation. The increased 
difficulties of the supervisor or executive, and his distraction 
from the main business of serving boys and girls, are most 
serious. Communities are unhappy and restive. The duplicate 
presence of agencies frequently serves still further to divide 
interests that are already shot through with sectarianism and 
clannishness. The thing objected to most of all is the attempt 
of some of the agencies to create their own membership con- 
stituency, thus driving the varied auspices under which boys’ 
and girls’ work is undertaken back into the basic structure of 
the local community. 

As was indicated in Part I,”° the study found a good deal of 
this sort of thing. The agencies are more aware of it than 
they are willing to admit. They smart under a sense of public 
reprobation on its account. They naturally object to extreme 
statements which would make the’ situation worse than it 
actually is. They admit that relations can be improved; but 
they wish to make much of the present incidental codperation 
(which the study gladly set forth), and tend to imply that not 
much more is either possible or necessary. Sometimes the 
excuse is offered that the agencies did not create the divisions 
in rural communities and that the situation was already as bad 
as possible. 

All told, the study found a more favorable attitude toward 
radical adjustments among agencies in the interests of com- 
munity peace and unification on the field than in the discussions 
of the advisory group. It cannot record, however, that the 
mood of concession and adjustment was characteristically pres- 
ent in either place. While asserting that the agencies are under 
moral obligation not to make matters worse, but rather to 
serve as unifying forces in rural communities, the report by 
no means held that the problem could be solved by the mere 
surrender either of field or of characteristics by any or all of 
the agencies. Their feeling that they are called to do work 
for rural youth, and that each has an essential contribution to 


20 P, 132. 


206 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


make, is one of the accepted assumptions. In operating under 
this assumption, however, the agencies ought to accept the con- 
dition that they shall both serve rural youth, each in its way, 
and also create a better spirit in communities so that the total 
life of their inhabitants shall be happier and better. The final 
reason why the solution must be one of adjustment and the fair 
interplay of opportunity and influence, rather than of the more 
competitive victory of one agency over another, is that the 
agencies actually grow out of different sorts and levels of ideal- 
ism in American life. As analyzed in the Preface, all the 
movements studied are serious ways of regarding life in behalf 
of youth. The attitudes and atmospheres which they reflect 
are all worth conserving and even worth contending for, if 
necessary, to perpetuate and expand them. They honestly 
reflect different planes and levels of current altruism. No im- 
partial mind will wish to deny expression to any one of them 
nor doubt that their variety enriches rural culture, illustrates 
the manifoldness of truth, and expresses the variety and per- 
vasiveness of God’s concern for boys and girls. 

It is almost equally important that a variety of idealistic 
agencies is necessary to furnish the medium for the goodwill 
of men and women of different strata and types within the 
nation. All sorts and conditions of men and women deserve 
a chance to work for the boys and girls of America. Some 
require one particular instrument and some another. 

Since, then, each of the agencies incarnates a valid and vital 
movement, both in what it brings to boys and girls and because 
it expresses different aspects of the nation’s idealism, how 
can active competition for the control of youth be escaped when 
several agencies converge in a limited field like a rural com- 
munity ? 

It is just at this point that the unformulated issue of quality 
became an emphatic determinate of attitude on the part of the 
agencies. Each one of them is attempting to embody its values 
in certain standards and concrete practices. The further exten- 
sion of greatly inferior work, the naturalization of a poor 
version of service, or the sort of adjustment which cuts away 
all distinctive character from the agencies, would please nobody. 


MAJOR ISSUES 207 


To proposals involving these things, the position of the agen- 
cies implies the retort: “Can you guarantee that work of a 
satisfactory sort can be done under the conditions which you 
suggest ?” 

While the report was not persuaded that a further evolution 
and enrichment of the common standards and tendencies of the 
agencies is impossible, its mood was to wish to see all existing 
values conserved. To the impatient verdict that the agencies 
have become just like so many more competing denominations, 
it mentally added that, like denominations, they have great 
visions, worthy histories and important values to conserve, 
besides being going concerns with large numbers of active and 
convinced supporters. The study therefore undertakes in the 
following paragraphs to give a more adequate recognition to 
the possible solutions which seem to emerge from the discus- 
sion of its proposals. 


POSS BUR SOLUTIONS 


Segregating the suburban work, and assuming that the 
methods of adjustment now actively under way in cities will 
rapidly be forced upon it, communities and counties or com- 
parable districts remain as the fields in which adjustments were 
discussed.** The solutions discussed by the report in terms 
of these units divided into the more and the less radical ones. 


APPROVAL OF INCIDENTAL ADJUSTMENTS 


It was very strongly urged that the not infrequent tendency 
to neighborly helpfulness growing into the beginning of united 
counsels, as already exhibited, should be further developed; ” 
but that more experience in informal cooperation should be 
allowed to precede any demand for formal adjustments. 

A certain range of technical cooperation, such as in joint 

21 A single still more radical suggestion as to field was recorded; namely, 
that the agencies ought to get together and solve the problem of adjust- 
ment for entire states as the denominations have sometimes done under 
comity commissions in the far West. This suggestion remains as a counsel 


of perfection which got no support as a live proposition. 
aa Pia 


208 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


training courses, was felt to be a safe proposal for frequent 
adoption. 


RADICAL LOCAL SOLUTIONS DISAPPROVED 


On the contrary, the agencies by common consent repudiated 
as too radical the series of occasional solutions found in the 
field work, such as the division of territory within a district, 
division of field by age-groups, and the employment of joint 
executives.”* In brief, there was no common consent to any- 
thing in the nature of codperative adjustment which goes in 
principle beyond current facts and tendencies as revealed by 
the data. 


SUGGESTED ASPECTS OF ADJUSTMENT 


The report sought to carry its further suggestions along the 
lines of natural affinities and sentiment rather than to intro- 
duce flatfooted proposals for organizational adjustment. Its 
two major emphases were therefore upon certain natural back- 
grounds against which the further development of the work 
was considered. 


RE-RELATING THE “CHRISTIAN” AGENCIES TO THE CHURCH 


The first of these was the historic relation between the 
church and the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian 
Associations. The report recommended a strong attempt to 
re-relate these agencies to the Protestant church within which 
they originated. These acknowledged origins conspire, with 
their many current contacts and interactions, to make adjust- 
ment between them and church life in local communities a 
special problem. 

The problem was found to be especially acute in the rural 
field, on account of the critical attitude discovered on the part 
of the church toward these particular agencies in contrast with 
others; for, paradoxically, they were less often approved by 


23 P. 134. 


MAJOR ISSUES 209 


local representatives of the churches than were the agencies 
not bearing the label “Christian” nor historically originating 
in the church.** Thus the church is relatively a more frequent 
sponsoring organization for the other agencies studied than it 
is for the two Christian Associations.”” The most frequent 
current objection to the Christian agencies was that the church 
can do anything which they are doing for youth, and can do 
it more conveniently, with less friction, less expense and 
greater continuity. 

The report found a new urgency just creeping into the 
problem of adjustment by reason of an enlarged interpreta- 
tion and development of organized religious education in the 
United States. Reénforcing the general sentiment that the 
church is adequate to care for its boys and girls, this new 
movement comes with a practical program largely duplicating, 
and logically rendering superfluous, the work of the Christian 
Associations as it has usually been developed in small com- 
munities.” 

The most authoritative formula of the new religious educa- 
tion movement involves organized group-work for boys and 
girls, an all-around program reflecting the normal interests of 
youth, and directed week-day activity parallel with the conven- 
tional ministries of church, Sunday school, and young people’s 
religious organizations. On paper this scheme, as developed 
in some of the more progressive states, is so complete as to 
seem to rule out all necessity for the agencies.” 

These plans and aspirations run so far beyond the actual 
accomplishments of religious education in the strictly rural 
field that they must almost of necessity remain largely on 
paper, unless popularized in some form which might happen 





24 Pp. 129 and 130. 

25 Table L, p. 92. 

26 See “Through the Week Activities,’ The International Sunday School 
Council of Religious Education—International Leaflet 204. This leaflet postu- 
lates that “the great majority of Sunday-school teachers have no desire to 
try any auxiliary organization in combination with their classes. They are 
somewhat dubious of the machinery, ritual, etc., which are concomitants of 
these schemes” (p. 3). Among the not-wanted organizations are named the 
Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls, but Boy Scout and Red Cross literature 
is recommended as an aid to the making of a week-day program. 

27 See, for example, The Program of Education for 1924 and 1925, New 
Jersey Council of Religious Education, “The Young People’s Division.” 


210 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


to ride into wide acceptance on a wave of imitation, or unless 
promoted by paid agents under intensive local or territorial 
organization. 

In its old expression through the County Sunday School 
Association, it was characteristically a nominal and intermittent 
organization with few trained leaders and scarcely any paid 
ones. The local organizations (township or district) were and 
are still more nebulous, and indeed chiefly function through 
reports.”® 

As to the present, many of the state Sunday school organi- 
zations are not yet allied with the new international merger 
for religious education. The new order has not developed very 
completely as yet. 

The study, consequently, did not actually find much to show 
for its ideals in the rural field. In but four of the fifty-three 
counties studied (three of which were essentially suburban, and 
the fourth highly exceptional), was there anything like an 
effective system of organized group-work for rural youth under 
the banner of religious education, such as could be thought of 
as comparable with, or as an equivalent for, the usual work of 
the national agencies in similar counties, 

It is not, therefore, as an actually competing movement in 
its present development, but as a “cloud no bigger than a man’s 
hand,” that the advent of the new religious education move-— 
ment in the rural field is to be regarded. In discussion, opinion 
differed as to whether it is a genuinely urgent portent and one 
that has any real prospect of expanding till it fills the heavens. 
In a very considerable number of counties the local representa- 
tives of the agencies were found to be very greatly exercised 
over the prospect, and attempting in various ways to prevent or 
forestall the intensive organization of religious education work 
under a paid executive. 

The report confessed the opinion that the establishment of 
this ideal of religious education in American thinking is epoch- 
making. It has had force enough to drive through a radical 
reorganization of the national agencies of religious education. 

28 For an elaborate factual study of these organizations in a representative 


state, see Athearn, The Religious Education of Protestants in an American 
Commonwealth (Indiana Survey), pp. 482-500. 


MAJOR ISSUES 211 


It has now become legitimatized in denominational procedure 
over a great part of the nation. In spite, therefore, of its 
relatively slight start up to date, it is probable that work, under 
the guise of religious education, parallel to the present work 
of the national agencies, will very rapidly appear as their 
competitor. The problem has already emerged, notably in the 
suburbs; and the movement is likely to follow the exact order 
of the agencies in their policies of expansion and occupancy. 
That is to say, it will appear first in the very types of com- 
munities in which the latter are now chiefly located. 

It seemed to the report, therefore, that a very large problem 
of enforced adjustment between the agencies and the church 
is already in sight, both on account of the critical trend of gen- 
eral local church sentiment and by reason of the new develop- 
ment of the religious education idea and method. This problem 
looms largest and with greatest immediacy for the Christian 
agencies. 

Venturing still further upon prophecy, the report anticipated 
a rapid development in larger rural communities of the demand 
for adequate moral and religious week-day education on a 
voluntary basis, supplemental to the work of the public school. 
This outcome is already foreshadowed by the rapid rise of the 
daily vacation Bible school in the smaller communities. The 
movement seems bound to spread. Unquestionably it will get 
general legal status ultimately, and will provide the instruc- 
tional side of a more adequate character-building process in 
the nation. An equal development of this process on its ex- 
pressional side will then be demanded. Is it to be furnished 
by an adjustment of the existing agencies to the new move- 
ment, or by a set of unrelated and rival activities labeled “re- 
ligious education”? In order to meet this situation, the report 
urged the most careful study of the historical and sentimental 
grounds of possible adjustments in this realm. 

As between the two Christian Associations, the Young Men’s 
Christian Association was found exhibiting a strong desire to 
seek renewed understanding with the church, while the Young 
Women’s Christian Association appeared embarrassed and un- 
certain, particularly on account of its official insistence upon 


212 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


the development of a special local membership constituency in 
all organized territory.” 


ASSIMILATION OF RELIGIOUS AND SECULAR IDEALISM 


Parallel to the adjustment of the Christian agencies and the 
church, the report urged the importance of the assimilation of 
religious and secular idealism. 

This necessity lies back of any specific proposals for relating 
the entire body of character-building agencies to one another 
and to local communities. The crux of the issue is the different 
versions of idealism which they represent. 

The report presented its- position essentially as follows: In 
contrast with the agencies historically originating as lay move- 
ments in the church, the others included in this study may, 
without invidiousness, be called expressions of secular ideal- 
ism. Their somewhat different complexion of thought and 
motive actually works out into differences of traditional usage 
as factually shown by the variations discovered within the 
common program of youth activity.°° These differences, 
whether of kind or of degree, are perhaps overstated by the 
agencies. They have, however, real significance for local com- 
munities. Thus, in the average American rural environment, 
a more than shadowy distinction between the church and the 
“world” is maintained. Small-town thinking keeps this dis- 
tinction in working order after city thinking has largely aban- 
doned it. The moral earnestness of rural people is expressed 
in the maintenance of practical differences between religious 
people and others, evidenced chiefly by certain conventional 
requirements and the use or failure to use the recognized lan- 
guage of Zion. So generally true is this, that the interpreta- 
tion of the one stream of idealism to the other becomes an 
urgent necessity. 

The data of the study showed that, in spite of their differ- 
ences,°’ both streams of devotion to the interests of boys and 

29 The Young Women’s Christian Association’s representatives also indicated 


the danger of becoming entangled in denominationalism, 
380 P, 149, 


31 P, 85 f. 


MAJOR ISSUES 213 


girls have looked to the church for leadership, sponsorship and 
a place of meeting. Curiously, as has been seen, the agencies 
whose antecedents are non-ecclesiastical have actually attached 
themselves to the church more frequently than have the two 
Christian associations. But the large use which all agencies 
make of the church tends to force it into the focus of their 
competitive approaches to the community. The field work en- 
countered numerous cases of conflict in which the current argu- 
ments were that one agency is more or less “Christian” or 
“religious” than another, or more conscientious about moral 
matters. No more urgent problem emerged than that of re- 
moving the “I am better than thow’ attitude between agencies 
whose local relationships and procedures are so much alike, 
and the healing of the resulting community misunderstand- 
ings by a more comprehending sympathy between the signifi- 
cant planes of idealistic interest in boys and girls.” 

In brief, the report held that adjustment must become more 
than a set of devices or a series of separate episodes, such as 
the merging of the methods and programs of two competing 
national agencies in particular places. It must relate to the 
subtly defined streams of constructive influence flowing into 
the rural community, to the total community situation and not 
merely to the agencies, and to the entire course of human 
life as organized in rural groups. It is no less an issue than 
this which the discussion inadequately revealed and dealt with.** 


SUMMARY 


All told, the discussion of major issues seemed to show that 
the participants were in a little closer agreement than they were 
on their underlying attitudes and presuppositions, yet no strong 
consensus of feeling or judgment was disclosed. Each agency 


82 It is not to be understood that the continuous reéxamination of ideas is 
not wholesome, or that comparison and even conflict is deprecated, provided 
the processes culminate within a reasonable period and do not drag out as 
a mood of controversy and end in a habit of opposition. 

83In view of the bigness of the issue, the report was obliged to hold that 
the concern of the agencies for the quality of the work under their existing 
organizations and methods, is disproportionate. Do they not need rather 
to work out some common qualitative standards upon the assumption of 
unified, rather than of separate, work? 


214 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


expects to pursue the policy of extension and occupancy in its 
own way, though with a certain greater open-mindedness, and 
with a trend toward more flexible methods. The seriousness 
of the problem of naturalization in community life is only being 
slowly learned through the long discipline of failure. The sanc- 
tity of the community as over against the best intentioned of 
alien forces is hardly yet recognized. On the part of some of 
the agencies there is a new glow of warmth and sense of rela- 
tionship toward the local agencies cherishing common ideals 
and having a similar origin and atmosphere. But little purpose 
was shown to undertake radical adjustments, or to try to bring 
the streams of idealism themselves into a common channel. 

Summarizing the whole case, the data and the discussion 
presented many challenges to the participants; but no coercive 
verdict commanding the assent of all was found either in the 
facts or in the experience of facing them together. The mere 
process of participation in such a study is deeply significant, 
and undoubtedly marked some progress toward a common 
understanding of the problem of rural boys and girls. But it 
will take a longer time, more basis in knowledge and more 
continuous contacts, to work out the ultimate issues, The only 
hope of larger agreement would seem to be more facts made 
more convincing because covering a longer period, acquired 
under the conditions of controlled codperative experiment, and 
involving more persistent contacts between leaders and execu- 
tives. 


CHAPTER XIV 
SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 


The most valid of all possible methods of solving any prob- 
lem is that of conscious experimentation. 

Experiment is simply controlled experience. Facts in the 
raw are too complicated for the understanding; and, so far as 
they are the consequence of previous action, they show the 
crude results of trial and error. Experiment simplifies the 
facts by limiting the field of their operation, assures homo- 
geneous conditions within which to observe them, and works 
out a common understanding of the problem on which light 
is sought; it formulates the terms of its hoped-for solution, 
under agreed conditions covering a pre-determined period of 
time. The final service of the report was to urge the agencies 
to embark upon a significant series of experiments in co- 
operation. 


SPECIAL MOTIVES FOR COOPERATIVE EXPERIMENT 


In addition to the validity of the experimental method, 
strong special motives had been revealed in the discussion, to- 
gether with important practical sanctions, for urging such a 
step. There was, for example, the weight of the following 
confessed assumptions : 

(1) A moral imperative rests upon the agencies to serve 
rural communities by unifying their group spirit and purposes 
as well as by organizing their boys and girls. Characteristi- 
cally, such communities are socially divided. The past work 
of the national agencies has often divided them still further. 
Now, for the sake of the boys and girls, the different strands 
of religious and secular idealism need to be brought together. 
The problem may be just as truly present where there is only 

215 


216 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


one national agency in a community as where there are more. 

(2) The mere organizational success of a single agency in 
a community is not to be regarded as success in the light of the 
common end. Thus, the most active troop or club of boys 
when girls are not organized, or of well-to-do boys when fac- 
tory boys are not organized, or of town boys when open country 
boys are not organized; or the most successful boys’ or girls’ 
organization of one movement when another movement is 
languishing, is not to be counted as success from a community 
point of view. 

(3) The alternative to greater codperation is undoubtedly 
greater future failure. The present rate of failure is stagger- 
ing; but communities may be increasingly expected to show 
the door to agencies that seek competitive support for over- 
lapping partial programs. Many places studied at first hand 
were voicing a sharp demand for unified boys’ and girls’ work. 
The lesson of repeated lapses should be plain except to the 
willfully blind, and not until the agencies take these things to 
heart will their attitudes be morally helpful. 


PRACTICAL JUSTIFICATION OF EXPERIMENTS PROPOSED 


The report found further practical justification for the pro- 
posed cooperative experiments in the following evidence pre- 
sented in detail in Part I: 

(1) Many communities already have two or more agencies 
well established. There is no practical way to eliminate them. 
The most obvious thing to do is to codperate. This is increas- 
ingly demanded by communities themselves. 

(2) The net outcome of the methods of the several agencies 
shows great similarity. Tendencies to age differentiation and 
specialization have already developed, and these lay natural 
groundwork for further adjustment. 

(3) A most important principle of social pedagogy apply- 
ing to this realm is that communities need an interesting variety 
of opportunities. They ought to be allowed to build local 
flexible programs from material afforded by the several agen- 
cies. In the experience of local workers a single program is 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 217 


not adequate. If it is tried, communities soon want to change 
and try another. If it is for boys alone, girls clamor for some- 
thing like it or for some part in it. 

(4) It was also urged that only a unified community work 
can relate itself to the more general movement of rural pro- 
grams and well-being. Organized effort in behalf of country 
life is embarrassed by the multiplicity of agencies for youth 
with which it has to deal. The integration of the total set of 
rural agencies would be simplified by the local unification of 
agencies for youth. 

(5) Rural communities frequently include radically diver- 
gent elements, racial or economic. Local feeling often makes 
it difficult to include all boys and girls under a single label. 
Witness, for example, the embarrassment of white and Negro 
Scouts in the same southern community. If, therefore, a uni- 
fied local program could represent several alternative agencies, 
it could find an appropriate program for each distinct social 
group, within the common community plan and purpose. 


REMEDIES SOUGHT FOR PRESENT DEFICIENCIES 


Under these motives and sanctions the general objectives of 
the proposed experiments were clear from the previous analysis 
of data. Apart from the evils of competition and divisiveness 
just now under consideration, the four chief local failings of 
nationally promoted rural boys’ and girls’ work in the past 
have been: (1) its numerical fragmentariness and limitation; 
(2) its far too frequent inability to naturalize in local com- 
munities; (3) the brevity of its influence and its failure to 
accomplish the formal objectives assumed; (4) its disconti- 
nuity and inability to carry over from one organization or 
stage of development to another. 

Of more general weaknesses, the following were pointed out 
as most damaging: The work as nationally organized has fre- 
quently not adopted the most effective supervisory units. It 
has allowed the agencies originating in the church to slip out 
of their natural alliances and to become distant and radically 
critical toward one another. It has failed to unite religious 


218 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


and secular idealism in a common cause. The objects of the 
proposed experiments must naturally be to rectify these errors. 


PROPOSED FIELDS OF EXPERIMENT 


The proposed series of experiments necessarily included the 
recognized units of operation as developed in the section on 
occupancy; namely, the large district for long-range cultiva- 
tion, the independent larger rural community, the county or 
comparable district of intensive supervision, and the suburban 
community in its natural social relationships with the city, 
unless this latter is eliminated from consideration as a rural 
problem. 


GENERAL CONDITIONS OF PROPOSED EXPERIMENTS 


The general conditions of the proposed experiments were, 
of course, those common to all scientific social study: (1) the 
chief points on which evidence is sought must be determined; 
(2) the location of the experiments and the territory to be 
covered by each must be settled; (3) the methods of procedure 
and relations between the cooperating agencies must be de- 
fined. All this must be so definite that a parallel experiment 
could be set up under independent auspices. 

Again, it was postulated that the partially transformed and 
somewhat artificialized experimental situation which is thus 
created must not be too remote from existing realities. Too 
great and unduly arbitrary modifications of procedure must be 
avoided, in order to make it highly probable that what is true 
under laboratory conditions would also prove true in a working 
test. 

It seemed imperative also that the set of experiments should 
have independent study and interpretation and sufficient inde- 
pendent supervision to assure that they be kept in line with the 
original agreements. Otherwise the public would scarcely be 
convinced of the fairness and freedom of the test. 

It was finally assumed that, at the end of the experimental 
period, there must be a comprehensive report, adequate con- 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 219 


sideration and discussion of the findings, a summarization of 
further agreements reached, followed by a still further cycle 
of experimentation. 

With these preliminary considerations the report elaborated 
the following suggested plan of experiment in detail. 


THE PLAN OF EXPERIMENT 


EXPERIMENTS IN THE PERMEATION OF RURAL TERRITORY BY 
LONG-RANGE PROMOTION 


It was proposed, first, that the agencies create two or three 
joint districts of considerable size, such as smaller states, parts 
of states or groups of counties, for the thorough promotion of 
the idea of organized character-building work for boys and 
girls by means of publicity. 


ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXPERIMENT 


Arguments, derived from the factual data and their discus- 
sion, for experiment in this particular field were: that much of 
the existing work in rural communities is the result of per- 
meation rather than of territorial organization; that many of 
the basic ideas of the agencies are interchangeable; that some 
economy would be effected by the use of joint representatives ; 
and, particularly, that a larger number of communities and of 
boys and girls should be reached by this method. 


POSSIBLE DETAILS OF THE PLAN 


No attempt was made to offer more than a sketch of the 
plan. It might well include a joint office, joint vehicles of 
stated publicity, such as a magazine, and the joint broadcast- 
ing of general information. The holding of conferences, train- 
ing courses, etc., by the agencies for long-range work (as in 
contrast with intensive supervision) might be attached to the 
joint office, and a certain amount of coperative visitation or a 
systematic routing of experts in the various fields, so as to be 


220 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


jointly available to the local work of all the agencies, might be 
practiced. 

Further possibilities suggested concerned the joint financing 
of such broadcasting service over large districts. 


SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE 


It was assumed that the central purpose of whatever condi- 
tions are attached to the experiment is to see how far and how 
permanently the work can permeate the smallest and most char- 
acteristic rural communities of the area in question.’ 


ACTION OF FEBRUARY, 1925, FINDINGS CONFERENCE 


The second findings conference adopted a resolution recom- 
mending that the agencies attempt experiments in codperative 
publicity and service in large districts along the lines suggested. 

The discussion assumed that such experiments would prob- 
ably include all types of agencies, but no precise determination 
of that point was registered. In the discussion the possibility 
of uniting district officers and of conducting training processes 
and service bureaus was mentioned, but no more exact limita- 
tions were prescribed for the experiment. 


EXPERIMENTS IN INTENSIVE ORGANIZATION 


The report recommended two parallel series of experiments 
in the larger independent rural communities (primarily towns 
of 2,500 population and over with their dependent rural areas), 
the first to be limited to agencies historically originating in the 
church, and the second to include all constructive character- 
building agencies for youth. No difference in essential rela- 
tionships or methods of organization is involved as between 
the narrower and wider versions of the experiments. Con- 
sequently a single exposition covers both its versions. 


i1It was assumed that the largest rural communities in the area would be 
separately organized. 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 2321 


THE COMMUNITY COUNCIL 


The specific proposal was for a unified local program through 
a community council of character-building organizations for 
youth. It was assumed that the national agencies would ex- 
perimentally enter a group of rural towns or small cities for 
the purpose of their joint cultivation and supervision, always 
including the natural area comprising the larger community 
with the incorporated center. The promotional and supervisory 
aspect of the work would be carried on in common through the 
council, while the individual units would remain those of the 
several agencies. 

Whether or not limited to national organizations originating 
in the church, the council would include the indigenous char- 
acter-building agencies for youth, such as the local churches and 
schools, and any special local movements for youth which were 
found to have serious educational purpose. Members of this 
council would function as the local committees which the na- 
tional agencies require to serve as sponsors for their work. 

It was proposed, as essential to the experiment, that it be 
entered upon in good faith, no party to the joint work trying 
to get advantage of or supersede another; that the more inti- 
mate responsibility of the indigenous agencies should be recog- 
nized without the denial of national responsibility; that, on the 
other hand, the message and contribution of the national agen- 
cies should not have to limit themselves to local outlooks or 
sectarian alliances; and, finally, that the entire organized inter- 
ests of boys and girls in the community should be included. 


THE COMMUNITY SECRETARY 


A second definite proposal was for employment by such a 
council of a community secretary for boys’ and girls’ work. 
Most organizable places of the population proposed can sup- 
port at least one full-time executive for such serious interests 
of youth. His major stress would naturally be placed upon the 
work of the interests most actively codperating in his support, 
but the community council should be free to use the means 


222 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


offered by any agency, national or otherwise, to make its pro- 
gram effective. The primary function of the community secre- 
tary’s work would be to train volunteers and get them to 
function as group leaders. He would have to maintain himself 
in the character of the professional leader, specialized in func- 
tion like the school superintendent or the pastor of the church, 
and not trying himself to do all or any considerable part of the 
work. He could thus relate himself equally and whole-heart- 
edly to units of all the national agencies which might be co- 
operating in the council. 


RELATIONS OF ORGANIZED GROUPS TO LOCAL PARENT 
ORGANIZATIONS 


It was proposed that the organized units of boys and girls 
should primarily belong to their parent or fostering organiza- 
tions, as at present. The community council would promote 
the central idea, train the leaders and conduct many common 
activities, but it should not directly undertake to be a parent 
organization for groups of boys and girls. Such groups should 
remain in and be primarily subsidiaries of their churches, 
schools and other organizations as at present, except that the 
total work should be projected and planned for jointly, and 
supplementary common facilities should be provided for phases 
of the work which are naturally too large for independent 
units to handle. 

Under the head of facilities, it was conceived that the com- 
munity house, so frequently present in the imagination of 
small communities and in the theory of a number of rural 
sociologists, might be provided, with organized responsibility 
and a proper administrative agency, representing a broad range 
of interests, to operate it. 


ADJUSTMENT OF THE COOPERATING AGENCIES 


In the theory of the proposal, all the codperating national 
agencies should be represented by organized local units. So 
should also the Junior Extension work in agriculture and 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 223 


domestic arts and other local character-building movements. 
Communities of the size contemplated have varied demands. 
A church may desire a Young Men’s Christian Association 
group, while a lodge wants Scouts, or two churches may de- 
mand different agencies. The actual demand of the ultimate 
group served should determine which particular agencies should 
be used, and the community council should be equally cordial 
to all. 

It was thought probable that the experimental working out 
of a unified plan of work for boys and girls would be found 
naturally to involve certain local divisions of responsibility 
among the agencies. In discussion their national representa- 
tives were found uniformly to repudiate such a suggestion. 
But if the experiment were allowed to have its own head, it 
would almost inevitably come to recognize the natural trends 
already developed and would adjust the work of the agencies 
as different phases of a unified system of educational activity. 
The actual trends would most likely result in something like the 
following general sequence and division of function: 


Betow Hicu-Scuoo,t AcE 


Sex Agency 
Boys Boy Scouts 
Girls Girl Scouts or (and) 


Camp Fire Girls 
HicH-ScHooLt AGE AND OVER 


(with different form of organization for school groups and non-school 
groups, industrial, foreign, etc.) 


Boys Yoni GSAS 
Girls Y. W. C. A. 


If the local program adopted this sequence it should be 
recognized as a logical and friendly adjustment, making place 
in the community life for all the agencies and systematizing the 
varied advantages which they offer. It would not be regarded 
as a general precedent. But, on the other hand, such a possi- 
bility could not fairly be refused to the communities if they 
saw fit to develop it under the experiment. ; 


224 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


ARGUMENTS FOR THIS PHASE OF EXPERIMENT 


The arguments in favor of a deliberate effort to cover the 
larger rural communities of the country were summarized as 
follows: (1) It meets the frequent demand for a unified“local 
program. (2) It provides for really intensive development of 
work in the local community, whereas the present scattering of 
effort (resulting only in fragmentary occupancy and poor 
diffusion of local units) belies the idea. (3) It is based on a 
vital social unit, whereas the county is often an arbitrary one. 
(4) It would solve an exigent problem, since large numbers of 
such communities are already occupied by more than one 
agency, with resulting competition. (5) The cost is not pro- 
hibitive, since many such units already exist, and the support 
of so-called county work frequently comes chiefly from such 
central places. (6) The field work shows that a demand exists 
for the separate organization of such communities. (7) The 
type of work called for in such communities naturally links 
up with the more characteristic and familiar methods of the 
agencies in their general field. It furnishes a natural inter- 
mediate phase between the strictly rural and the strictly urban 
type of work. (8) Work in such communities, including their 
dependent rural areas, should reach many boys and girls who 
are not now organized.” 


ACTION OF FEBRUARY, 1925, FINDINGS CONFERENCE 


The second findings conference voted to recommend that the 
agencies attempt such cooperative experiments in communities 
of 2,500 population and over, but was inclined to the view that 
all character-building agencies, including those under Roman 
Catholic and Hebrew auspices, should generally be included. 


2 Following out the judgment earlier expressed that the suburban problem 
logically lies outside the present inquiry and belongs to the urban field, the 
study did not recommend experimental organization in suburban communities. 
In the discussion, however, it was clearly implied that the agencies desiring 
to hold the suburban field within their town and country departments would 
be inclined to make analogous experiments in this field also. 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 225 


EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATIVE TERRITORIAL 
ORGANIZATION 


EXPERIMENTS LIMITED TO AGENCIES ORIGINATING IN 
THE CHURCH 


The first group of experiments recommended concerned ex- 
clusively the agencies originating in the church and the in- 
digenous forces of the community able to cooperate under 
church auspices. 

Specifically the agencies included in the proposed experi- 
ment are the Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian 
Associations, together with the county or local district ma- 
chinery of religious education (Sunday School Associations or 
Councils of Religious Education). It is the essence of the plan 
that the character-building agencies relate themselves first to 
these interdenominational organizations, and that they insti- 
tute territorial supervision involving units in local churches 
only through and as part of this territorial alliance.* 


CONDITIONS OF LEGITIMATE EXPERIMENT 


As in the previous experiments, a national agreement of the 
agencies is assumed, permitting, for experimental purposes, the 
necessary changes and adjustments in their current policies, 
without implying any permanent change in the system. The 
national, state and larger supervisory machinery would con- 
tinue to function as at present. The experiment concerns only 
territory intensively organized, for a limited period to be agreed 
upon. It is, of course, assumed that if satisfactory ways of 
cooperation are experimentally demonstrated the agencies will 
take further appropriate action. 


PROBABLE DETAILS 


The following were recommended as probable functional 
arrangements necessary to make the plan a genuine experiment 


8 This section, limiting the proposal to the religious agencies, is immediately 
followed by one showing that an analogous plan might be made to include all 
the constructive forces for youth, including the Junior Extension work in 
agriculture and home economics. 


226 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


in cooperation, while preserving the organizational identity of 
the several agencies: (1) overlapping or interlocking boards 
of directors or territorial committees; (2) joint executives; 
(3) unified general territorial programs; and (4) unified pro- 
grams for local communities. 


OVERLAPPING DIRECTORATES 


The first of the above specifications merely implies electing 
some of the same men and women to the governing bodies of 
the several agencies within the territorial administrative unit. 
Field investigation proves the great likelihood that the per- 
sonnel of present county committees is somewhat overlapping 
and that the main financial support of altruistic movements 
largely comes from the same group. Everywhere the more 
public-spirited and idealistic leaders are sought for whatever 
concerns the betterment of youth, and they are very likely to 
respond to the appeal. The first proposed step is simply to 
recognize this as an inevitable condition and to set about to 
make it more definitely and more generally true as a ground 
for cooperation. 


JOINT EXECUTIVES 


A natural second step is to employ a joint executive or 
executives by concurrent action of the interrelated territorial 
boards. Care must naturally be exercised that such executives 
be interested and competent to direct all phases of the coopera- 
tive work. Successful examples of this plan already exist, as 
in Westchester County, N. Y., where the county Sunday School 
Association and the county Young Men’s Christian Association 
have a single executive secretary with associates specializing in 
different phases of the work. 


A UNIFIED PROGRAM 


Third, the unified territorial program would be planned in 
common, but in actual execution divided between the cooperat- 
ing agencies along functional lines, That is to say, each mem- 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 227 


ber of the working alliance would continue to do in the main 
what it is now doing for the group for whom its work is 
primarily designed. Thus the tradition of religious education 
is strong on the instructional side of character-building, but 
weak on the side of spontaneous group activity and largely 
lacking in week-day programs. In the proposed cooperative 
organization the religious education agency would continue to 
do what it now does most characteristically and best, while the 
organizations which have developed group programs would 
continue to function more largely in that field, boys’ agencies 
for boys and girls’ agencies for girls. 


LOCAL COUNCILS OF YOUTH 


Fourth, the unified local program would be worked out 
essentially according to the plan proposed in the previous sec- 
tion for the separate organization of the local community. 
That is to say, there would be in each place of any size a com- 
munity council for youth under the joint auspices of the terri- 
torial cooperative bodies, but including the local churches and 
schools as representative of the indigenous agencies. Each 
community would thus be approached in behalf of the total 
moral interests of youth. 


ADVANTAGES FROM POINT OF VIEW OF OCCUPANCY 


The advantages urged for such a plan were many. On the 
side of occupancy it attaches the youth movement represented 
by the agencies to those developments which have gone further 
into rural society than any other of the voluntary character- 
building movements. The Sunday school is the one such 
movement taken for granted by all rural people. It is virtually 
ubiquitous. If, therefore, the work of the special character- 
building agencies can ally itself with this all-permeating move- 
ment it will have a hopeful basis for a much larger penetration 
of the rural field. 

Again, the Sunday school movement depends on non-pro-. 
fessional leaders. With all their shortcomings and deficiencies | 


228 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


in preparation, here is a very extensive group of bona fide 
rural people already committed to responsibly organized work 
for boys and girls. 

Still again, the rural religious education movement makes a 
much broader financial appeal to the nation than any other 
appeal in behalf of boys and girls. When it comes to the 
problem of support, it is far easier to obtain funds from urban 
and general sources on the missionary appeal than in any other 
way. The nation is accustomed to give to rural philanthropy 
which has the stamp of the church upon it. 


ADVANTAGES FROM POINT OF VIEW OF NATURALIZATION 


On the side of naturalization, it was argued that financial 
obligation for boys’ and girls’ work in the field of religious 
education is already widely recognized locally. Rural people 
do not give much, but many ruralpeople habitually give a little 
to the present interdenominational Sunday-school work. It 
will be possible to build upon this tradition. 

Again, the rural religious education movement is in great 
danger of attempted uniformity. It would greatly reénforce 
its breadth of appeal if a variety of spontaneous and active 
character-building movements, such as the agencies are, were 
associated with it. 

Still further, alliance with the inter-denominational organi- 
zation of the church for religious education fulfills the demand 
for a local adult constituency profoundly motivated by the 
Christian spirit. It has been seen how insistent some of the 
agencies are upon the development of such a constituency. In 
the proposed alliance, organized work for boys and girls is 
not left an orphan in the community. It is rather a movement 
which has a permanent home within the most deeply rooted 
religious forces. 


ADVANTAGES FROM POINT OF VIEW OF ADJUSTMENT 


On the side of adjustment with the local church, the crying 
need for which was actually demonstrated, the report pointed 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 229 


out that the local church is accustomed to an approach from the 
outside in behalf of religious education, and that this psycho- 
logical advantage might well be appropriated in behalf of the 
larger character-building effort. The church, which has been 
excessively critical of the agencies, might be docile under such 
an approach, rather than alarmed and opposed as it so fre- 
quently is at present. 

Again, rural organization for religious education has been 
traditionally interdenominational and has not run afoul of the 
sectarian differences within Protestantism which the agencies 
so naturally try to avoid.* 

While interdenominational, the rural religious education 
movement nevertheless has ecclesiastical prestige and authority. 
It has the long-time approval of the denominations codperating 
init. By becoming related to it the work of the agencies could 
most easily escape conflict with local denominational move- 
ments. 


SPECIAL TIMELINESS 


A special argument for the timeliness of the proposed experi- 
ments was found in the present plastic character of the religious 
education movement. Religious education, as was shown, has 
outlined a program calling for just such character-building 
work as the agencies are doing in the rural field. At present, 
however, its resources are too weak to carry out the proposed 
program in these areas to any great extent. It is just the 
locally undeveloped character of actual religious education (in 
contrast with its virtually complete scheme) which affords the 
opportunity for the agencies, just now, to ally themselves with 
it aggressively. Organized religious education, in other words, 
presents a tool for whomsoever will use it locally. The over- 
head forces are generally too weak to involve a conflict. They 
want their ideas carried out and will welcome any bona fide 
local alliance. By the time that the overhead organization of 

4In the discussion it was agreed that proposed experiments of this sort 
had better be tried in communities where there is little Catholic or Hebrew 


population. When codperation measures have been worked out in Protestant 
areas there will be more hope of extending them to include other populations. 


230 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


religious education in its new phase becomes strong enough to 
try to insist upon its own way in rural communities, it ought 
to find the character-building agencies well intrenched and 
naturalized within their religious education processes, in many 
important territories. This will compel the religious education 
movement, as it develops from above, to unlimber and become 
teachable. Such a result will incidentally be of great advantage 
to the movement itself. 

Finally, the permanent injection into the religious move- 
ment of the enthusiasm, the virile lay leadership, and the strong 
body of volunteer workers with boy- and girl-groups, now 
expressed in the character-building agencies, will be most stimu- 
lating and helpful. 


SUMMARY 


The report had previously recognized as a primary problem 
of adjustment the re-relating to the church of the character- 
building agencies for rural youth which bear the name “Chris- 
tian.” * As the experiment proposed above was outlined, it 
threw into relief anew the three movements involved. First, 
there is the older movement of organized Sunday-school work 
in villages and open-country territory. It was interdenomina- 
tional, informal, largely non-ecclesiastical in method and spirit. 
The lay mind of rural Protestantism is strongly committed to 
cooperation in this field. Second, there is the newer religious 
education movement, entering into the heritage of the older 
one, and adding the formal and authoritative codperation of 
the Protestant denominations as well as a far broader inter- 
pretation of educational objectives and program. Finally, there 
are the “Christian” character-building agencies. They are 
essentially lay movements, not formally related to ecclesiastical 
organizations but historically originating in Protestantism. 
All three function finally with particular groups of young peo- 
ple in local churches. 

The proposed experiment really constitutes a great and novel 
effort to harmonize, in limited local territory, these three media 
of major moral influence which belong together in ideal and 


5 P, 208. 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 231 


spirit ; and which, in some areas, are opposing or trying to fore- 
stall one another, and in others, feeling after more sympathetic 
and cooperative adjustments. 


INCLUSIVE EXPERIMENTS 


The report also recommended a group of experiments which 
would attempt locally to link the movements of religious and 
secular idealism—whose problematic relations were previously 
recognized °“—through a type of cooperative territorial organi- 
zation including all constructive character-building agencies. 
It was felt that the most natural form of experiment would be 
simply to include more agencies; but that the religious educa- 
tion movement might still be the functional center, provided 
broad enough arrangements were made to include religious 
education in all communions, It was pointed out that the local 
units of Scout organizations are already so largely in the church 
and so frequently related to Sunday-school groups that no revo- 
lutionary change is actually implied; also, that the lay mind, 
as represented in the Rotary and Kiwanis club elements of 
rural communities, would not be suspicious of the non-sectarian 
organization for religious education, as they are of the denomi- 
national churches. It was felt, therefore, that there should 
be no practical difficulty in associating the Boy and Girl Scout 
movements and the Camp Fire Girls with the rural movement 
of religious education and the Young Men’s and Young 
Women’s Christian Associations when they exist in the same 
territory. The result would be a joint commission of char- 
acter-building and religious education agencies for the period 
of the experiment, with overlapping directorates, joint execu- 
tives and unified programs. After the experimental period, 
such a commission might be perpetuated as a permanent council 
of such agencies. 


DETAILS OF PROPOSED RELATIONSHIPS 


The relationships of the national agencies to local units bear- 
ing their labels would be exactly the same as they are now with 


6 P, 212, 


232 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


such units when not under intensive supervision. The national 
agencies would simply suspend or agree not to import the 
methods of intensive supervision into the territory concerned 
for the time of the experiment. For example, a Scout troop 
not “under council’ is a locally initiated and locally controlled 
group conforming to national standards. It is consequently 
recognized by national authority. It may be wholly within 
some church or school (exactly as it would be under the pro- 
posed plan), but the local Scout machinery would be affiliated 
with the territorial council of religious education. In other 
words, no principle of local action is involved other than that 
already in use with respect to indigenous agencies in communi- 
ties. Minor changes in practice would be inevitable, but would 
follow naturally. 

National, state and larger district representatives of the 
agencies would have the same relation to units within the 
boundaries of the proposed experiment that they now have to 
units in unorganized territory. 

The same tests of proper leadership and standard work which 
now apply would still be maintained by the agencies and there 
would be the same requirements of progress and achievement 
before the granting of promotion and honors. 

The agencies would all share in the training of leaders 
through their available territorial representatives. 

Per capita membership fees for the support of the respective 
national agencies might be required from any local unit asking 
recognition from them exactly as at present. Consequently, 
national financing would not be interfered with and direct ap- 
peal to wealthy individuals should not be abridged. If local 
Community Chests or other novelties of financing developed, 
the matter of relationships would come up on its own merits 
exactly as though the experiment was not in process. 


ACTION OF FINDINGS CONFERENCE 


The findings conference of February 24, 1925, voted to 
recommend to the agencies experiments in territorial codpera- 
tion as recommended by the report; namely, in unified rural 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 233 


counties or comparable areas of intensive supervision (a) to 
include only agencies originating in the church and indigenous 
religious movements, and (b) to include all constructive and 
character-forming agencies for youth. 


SUMMARY OF ACTION OF FINDINGS CONFERENCE 


The series of actions of the findings conference of February 
24, 1925, upon the experiments recommended by the report 
may be summarized as follows: 


In general approval of the recommendations, it was moved 
and carried that the agencies codperating in the study are 
to initiate a series of experiments in local codperation along 
lines suggested in the report. 

It was specifically voted to recommend: 

I. Experiments in cooperative publicity and service in 
larger administrative districts (such as small states, parts of 
large states or groups of contiguous counties having a natu- 
ral unity and perhaps centering in a city). 

II. Experiments including only agencies originating in the 
church: (1) local—in independent communities centering in 
towns of 2,500 population and over; (2) territorial—in 
unified rural counties or comparable areas under intensive 
supervision. 

III. Experiments including all constructive and character- 
building agencies for youth: (1) local—in independent com- 
munities as defined above; (2) territorial—in unified rural 
counties as defined above. 

The plan for codperative experiment as discussed had gen- 
erally assumed the location of the several experiments in 
different parts of the country. A contrary policy of concen- 
tration was, however, favored by some; and it was moved 
and carried that the agencies be asked to consider as one 
alternative the possibility of centralizing the entire series of 
experiments in a single state. 

Finally, it was moved and carried that the results of the 
conference be communicated to each agency for consideration 
and action and that they be asked to send replies covering 
any action taken to Henry Israel, Secretary, National Council 
of Social Agencies Doing Rural Work, Room 1849, Grand 
Central Terminal Building, New York City. 


234 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


A SERIES OF EXPERIMENTAL TESTS 


The plan thus proposed and approved did not ask for any 
overnight adoption of a final solution of the problem of char- 
acter-building work for rural boys and girls. What it did 
propose was an adequate series of experimental tests on which 
to base the next steps forward. A minimum of fifteen experi- 
ments of the types above enumerated was suggested. This 
would imply: 

(1) A choice of two or three large districts for cooperative 
publicity and service to see how far rural society could be pene- 
trated by long-range methods. 

(2) The choice of a well-distributed group of communities 
of from 2,500 to 10,000 population including several types to 
serve as practical laboratories for intensive local organization 
under community councils of youth. Part of this series of 
experiments would be limited to agencies originating in the 
church, while others would include all the constructive agencies. 

(3) The selection of a group of socially unified counties 
or comparable areas for intensive territorial organization and 
supervision under a cooperative agreement; these also to in- 
clude both the cases limited to agencies originating in the 
church and other cases including all the constructive agencies. 


DURATION AND POSSIBLE AUSPICES 


The report recommended that the experiment last for five 
years, that a joint commission or agency mutually agreed upon 
(such as possibly the Conference of National Social Agencies 
Doing Rural Work) should watch and guide the experiment 
and report impartially upon its results. It also urged that 
especially competent men and women, heartily believing in the 
experiment and committed to the community viewpoint in their 
local work, should be chosen by the agencies to carry it out. 


RECOGNIZED PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES 


The execution of so far-reaching a plan is, of course, not 
without problems and difficulties. The report, therefore, con- 


SUGGESTED EXPERIMENTS IN COOPERATION 235 


cluded with a warning and an appeal to the better nature both 
of the agencies and of the communities respectively involved. 

The agencies are not conspicuously succeeding at present. 
The absolute gaps in their work are too many. Within the 
assumed successes the cases of low vitality are too frequent. 
The wear and tear of competition and the shifting fortunes of 
the work are too great to make any one want to perpetuate the 
present situation. It is socially chaotic, pedagogically distress- 
ing, often morally sickening. Some better way must be found. 

On the other hand, the good of the boys and girls of America 
is the end and object of all the work—not the agencies nor their 
systems nor their treasuries. 


A WARNING AND APPEAL 


The rural communities on their part frequently present the 
tragical spectacle of an impoverished life for youth, of lack 
of sympathy and sometimes downright feud conditions between 
the generations. Their need of “something for boys and girls” 
and their inability to provide a satisfactory solution is the most 
outstanding and pathetic revelation of the study. Not infre- 
quently the chief use which communities wish to make of the 
agencies at present is to reenforce their own competitive local 
institutions. 

This is all the more reason why the agencies should co- 
operatively provide a program appealing to the better nature 
of the communities and turning them toward habits of social 
integration. At present a town having good work for a brief 
period for one age or sex may have a bad total atmosphere and 
a depressive influence upon the life of youth. The waste of 
divided effort, the social disaster of such situations constitute 
an imperative argument for finding some better way. 

All the constructive forces combined are none too strong to 
overcome the tendency toward moral sag and disintegration. 
On the other hand, the strength of union and the ultimate joy 
of codperative service present a great appeal in behalf of the 
proposed experiments. 


APPENDIX [| 
CHRONOLOGY OF THE STUDY 


January, 1922: Institute of Social and Religious Research ap- 
proved a “Study of Religious Agencies in the Rural Field,” 
intended to include character-building agencies as well as 
churches, as requested by the representatives of certain na- 
tional agencies. 

November, 1922: Study of Churches and of Character-Building 
Agencies separated into two projects on account of non- 
comparability of existing data in amount and content, and 
the “relative independence” of the two phases of investi- 
gation. 

January, 1923: The latter phase authorized as a separate study 
under the title, “Study of Rural Religious Agencies.” 

March, 1923: Appointment of Director. 

April, 1923: Cooperation of agencies secured (see Preface, p. vi, 
and Appendix IT). 

May, 1923: First informal conference of representatives of agen- 
cies and other experts. Organization of advisory group 
(Enlarged later. For list, see Appendix ITI). 

May 16, 1923: Formal meeting of advisory group. Agreement 
on the following: “(1) that the primary study should be 
limited to agencies operating nationally, but (2) that the 
study should fix upon their functioning in rural communities 
and should be carried down into the actual units of popu- 
lation rather than stopping with the county or district units 
of administration; (3) that all agencies encountered in the 
local field and doing related work should be incidentally in- 
cluded ; (4) that in the method of the study field work should 
precede study of headquarters’ records and documents, though 
both should be adequately included.” 

June, 1923: Staff conferences formulating schedules and method- 
ology (Appendix IV). 

July, 1923-February, 1924: hes mo by the following persons: 


238 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Number of 
Name Counties Studied 
FL TEE, TLIPOCLOL 15. as Nokes Grae By MORE Rin Wb ie Sone ie Re eis eee 14 
Miss .tielena WC Dickinson icc note so eo banana ees 14 
REVO MIL OM FONTISOD Vvaraa so Mine waiaale Sheree CNIS A ae tas Iz 
Miss thlelem()> Belkan oc ese k bea aslo hes nate a ae 8 
Trams Bi WOU e ass th re dais ee co Maen een eee aan 4 
ReohiG OC), sO ee UG Ae ace re he tees Red es ted © eee 1 


March-May, 1924: Tabulation of general and county data. Con- 
ferences with representatives of agencies and study of head- 
quarters documents. 

May 20, 1924: Presentation of Preliminary Report (of 170 type- 
written pages) to advisors and all-day discussion at the Pres- 
byterian Board Rooms, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

Resolution adopted: 


“We have heard with deep interest the report of Dr. Douglass for the 
Institute of Social and Religious Research and express our appreciation of 
its exceptional value and receive it as an advance of the thinking upon 
this whole area of work; we hope to see it published by the Institute and 
the studies carried further in these directions: (1) a statement of the under- 
lying purpose of the organizations investigated; (2) a statement of the 
results they have attained; (3) a description of their programs.” 


June-September, 1924: Tabulation of community data and study 
of the results. 

June, 1924: Presentation of the preliminary report to meeting of 
National Social Agencies Doing Rural Work. 

September, 1924: Completion of second part of preliminary 


report. 

October, 1924: Authorization of preparation of an abbreviated 
complete report for the use and criticism of the codperating 
agencies, and appropriation for publication of a brief popular 
book based on the report. 

December, 1924: Completion of abbreviated report and circula- 
tion to agencies. 

February 24, 1925: Second Findings Conference of representa- 
tives of the agencies, other rural experts and project staff at 
the Fraternity Club, Thirty-eighth Street and Madison Ave- 
nue, New York City. Presentation of total preliminary re- 
port (200 typewritten pages), discussion and recommenda- 
tions. 

May, 1925: Completion of report in its present form. 


APPENDIX II 
LIST OF COOPERATING AGENCIES 


Boy Scouts of America. 

Federal Council of Churches of Christ (Commission on Councils 
of Churches). 

International Sunday School Council of Religious Education, 

Young Men’s Christian Association. 

Young Women’s Christian Association. 

The Girl Scouts, Inc.* 


1 By informal action, after the study had begun. 


APPENDIX III 
ADVISORS 


Dr. Walter S. Athearn, Boston University, Boston, Mass. 

Miss Mary Meek Atkeson, 1821 Lamont Street, N.W., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Dr. E. deS. Brunner, 370 Seventh Avenue, N. Y. City. 

Pres. Kenyon L. Butterfield, Michigan State College, East 
Lansing, Mich. 

Mr. G. E. Farrell, States Relation Service, Dept. Agriculture, 
Washington, DG: 

Dreatreg. iia tetict (Bay. Scouts of America, 200 Fifth Avenue, 
Dey Cay, 

Dr. Charles J. Galpin, Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Mrs. Walter H. Gilpatric, 20 Midland Avenue, White Plains, 
INA A) 

Dr. Roy B. Guild, Federal Council of Churches, 105 E. 22nd 
StreerN iy. City. 

Mr. Clark P. Po lea Phelps Farm, Milan, Pa. 

Mr. Henry Israel, American Country Life Association, Room 
1849, Grand Central Terminal Building, N. Y. City. 

Mr. A. C. Reeves, Trenton Evening Times, Trenton, N. J. 
(YMCA, ) 

Mr. A. E. Roberts, 347 Madison Avenue, N. Y. City (Y.M.C.A.). 

Miss Henrietta Roelofs, 600 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. City 
(Y.W.C.A\). 

Mrs. Jane Deeter Rippin, 189 Lexington Avenue, N. Y. City 
(Girl Scouts). 

Mr. John A. Sherley, Eastern States Agricultural & Industrial 
League, Springfield, Mass. 

Mr. Elmer T. Thienes, 5 Haynes Street, Hartford, Conn. 
CYGMECTAY) 

Rev. Paul R. Vogt, 1701 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 

Mr. James E. West, Boy Scouts of America, 200 Fifth Avenue, 
NPR Se Cris 

Dr. Warren H. Wilson, Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, 
156 Fifth Avenue, N. Y. C. 


240 


APPENDIx IV 


ESTIMATES OF MEMBERSHIP 


The following figures give the estimated number of minors in 
the membership of five national agencies in communities of 10,000 
population and under. For reasons stated in the text they are 
only careful estimates. 





Agency Minor Members 
PRM COUIUSITCLE ss. 5 Gt 6 casa < sive Seikly on eve CERO me 216,000 
cas Sk RI rR aa pe Po tee 30,375 
UE Ne oA AT a AD My Bee Pin OT 33,000 
SERIAL SAU icc eich oe Spier ena cle ee otola 26,000 
lb Ne fe TEL TW OTT g Ce ap tcp cs Ga a aM Ops Pee Ld 25,000 
PRI RPA a yr ee viele ef taco Ge teats 330,375 


The Boy Scouts furnish about 62 per cent. of the estimated 
total. 

The method of rcaching the above figures is as follows: The 
Young Men’s Christian Association reports organized members 
in the Town and Country Department in its annual yearbooks. 
The figure quoted for this agency is based upon the reported 
members of groups (1923 Year Book, “Summary FE,” p. 115), 
to which is added an estimate for the membership of high-school 
groups or town and small city associations in communities of the 
size-group included but not under the town and country depart- 
ment. The Association also reports its total boy membership 
outside of city associations. This affords means of checking the 
figures. 

“The Young Women’s Christian Association estimate is based 
upon direct reports from the national office for members of organ- 
ized counties and members of Girl Reserve groups in unorganized 
rural territory, with an addition for the members of separately 
organized town associations in places of less than 10,000 and of 
rural extension clubs of city associations. 

The estimate for the Boy Scouts is based upon the Twelfth 
Annual Report (1921, p. 8), which shows that 48 per cent. of 
Scout troops at that time were in communities of less than 10,000 
population. The average size of the troop appears to be about 


242 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


the same in urban and rural territory, so that it is fair to assume 
that approximately one-half of the Boy Scouts membership (re- 
ported at 432,995 as of February 15, 1923) is found in communi- 
ties of the size covered by the Town and Country Departments 
of the Christian Associations. 

Only 5 per cent. of Scouts “under council,” however, are found 
in towns of less than one thousand population (Report of Na- 
tional Boy Scout Commission on Rural Scouting, 1922, p. 3). 

For the Girl Scouts the basis of the estimate is extremely in- 
definite. There is no distinction between urban and rural in 
reports made to national headquarters, and the matter has been 
investigated in only one state, namely, Study of the Girl Scout 
Program in Relation to the New York Rural Community, by Dr. 
Louise Stevens Bryant (Girl Scouts, Inc., 1923). This study 
shows that in New York only one Girl Scout in seven is “rural.” 
But one Scout troop in four is located in a place of 2,500 or less, 
and the rural proportion for the United States as a whole is 
probably greater, since its general urban development is less 
than that of New York. It seems fair therefore to estimate that 
one-third of the 80,229 Girl Scouts reported in 1914 are to be 
found in communities of the size under consideration. This 
results in the estimate of 26,000 rural Girl Scouts quoted in 
the text. 

The Camp Fire Girls have no separate rural department, no 
recognition of any difference in rural work in their formal reports, 
no statistics, and no special study made by the agency of its rural 
work as such. (Interview with National Executives, July 25, 
1924.) The organization claims to be particularly strong in smaller 
cities and towns and in a number of states such as Iowa, Nebraska 
and Colorado, which have few cities. Under these conditions a 
considerable proportion of the Camp Fire membership of 160,000 
girls (Annual Report, 1923, p. 13) must be rural, but in view of 
the lack of evidence the estimate of the text (25,000) may be 
rather wide of the mark. But the relatively small contribution of 
this organization to the total rural membership of the agencies 
does not greatly affect the result one way or the other. 

The membership of about 600,000 boys and girls in the Junior 
Extension Clubs of the United States and State Extension 
Services is based upon direct reports of the United States De- 
partment of Agriculture for 1922 (Department Circular 312, 
1924, p. 1). 


APPENDIX V 
METHODOLOGY 
1, THE TERRITORIAL SAMPLE 


The investigation used the familiar method of studying a social 
situation by means of an adequate and representative territorial 
sampling of the facts. 

The fifty-three counties studied (for list, see Table I) consti- 
tute only 1.7 per cent. of the counties of the United States, and 
include only 4.1 per cent. of the population. This is enough, 
however, to reveal typical facts and to establish trends. 


BASIS OF SELECTION 


The counties were chosen in the following manner. Each co- 
operating agency was asked to indicate an approximately equal 
number of counties in which their work showed “good,” “fair,” 
and “poor” results, respectively. From this list a selection was 
made so as to give a reasonable regional balance, to reflect the 
influence of the more marked economic and agricultural provinces, 
and also to represent all degrees of occupancy by the agencies. 


CONSEQUENCE OF DUAL REQUIREMENT 


In order to constitute a good sample, the territory chosen had 
not only to be a fair cross-section of the United States, but it had 
also fairly to represent the actual distribution of the work of the 
agencies which is not equally diffused throughout the area of the 
nation. Consequently the sample could not be equally satisfac- 
tory from both standpoints and a certain compromise was in- 
evitable. 


ACTUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GROSS SAMPLE 


While the counties chosen revealed a fair sample of the popu- 
lation of the United States by race and nationality, it turned out 
to be one-sided in several ens 


244 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


It included a disproportionate number of counties with declin- 
ing rural population. The average farm value of the counties 
studied was one-third beyond that of the United States as a whole. 
There was a relatively less rural and more urban population than 
the average, and much of the population classified as rural was 
really suburban. 

The primary cause of these one-sidednesses in the sample was 
the fact that the agencies have disproportionately cultivated rich 
counties, many of them lying near cities. The total sample was 
fairly typical of the areas in which the agencies are working, but 
was less satisfactory as a really rural cross-section of the nation. 

However, the twenty-nine strictly rural counties, considered by 
themselves, constitute a very good net cross-section of rural 
United States. There is no reason to believe that any other 
selection of an equal number of counties would be more repre- 
sentative of the nation-wide work of the agencies. 


2. STATISTICAL TREATMENT 


No elaborate statistical methods were followed. The data as 
secured through the schedules were tabulated and summarized 
in ninety tables throughout the text, generally under self-explana- 
tory headings. 


CORRELATIONS 


Besides repeated quantitative statements showing how large a 
fraction of the total comparable population was represented by 
the sample in its various aspects, and the recurrent comparison 
of agency with agency, the following correlations were most fre- 
quently used: (1) type of organization and supervision; (2) size 
of community; (3) type of community including types of dis- 
tribution of population, urban and suburban vs. rural communi- 
ties, and the degree of social development of communities; (4) 
number of agencies at work and specific combinations and dupli- 
cations. 

In the tables these categories were applied to the data from 
numerous points of view to determine what difference their pres- 
ence or absence made. 

A correlation attempted but found not significant was with the 
degree of wealth of the territorial unit. It appeared that the 
support of the agencies generally is so little diffused and so much 
a matter of the backing of a few individuals that differences in 
general wealth had little to do with general results. 


1 Tables XVIII and XIX. 


APPENDIX V 245 


3. HEADQUARTERS INFORMATION VS. FIELD DATA 


While few agencies were able to furnish much strictly com- 
parable headquarters information, such as could be secured was 
tabulated for the points covered. The results showed striking 
agreement and tend to confirm the reliability of both sources of 
information. 


4. TESTIMONY 


The verbatim testimony of representative citizens was trans- 
ferred from the schedules and field notes to sheets classified ac- 
cording to the ostensible subjects to which the testimony related. 

It was then carefully organized under simple categories, care 
being taken not to force meanings upon it beyond what were really 
there. 

The frequency of judgments favorable and unfavorable con- 
cerning the general value of the respective agencies, and the degree 
of satisfactoriness of their workers and finances, were then 
counted and interpreted in the light of the investigator’s first-hand 
impressions. 

Where possible the judgments were traced to their occupa- 
tional source, and the points of view of participants and non- 
participants and of witnesses representing different vocations were 
noted. Nothing is claimed for this technique beyond a systematic 
and conservative sifting of the testimony. 

The implicit philosophy of human development and of rural 
life, which entered into the point of view of the study, is con- 
fessed in the final sections, and is distinguished from conclusions 
which appear to emerge directly from the facts. The final con- 
structive suggestions are based upon the total results of the study 
and are believed to constitute well-considered hypotheses to be 
proved or disproved by further experiment. 


APppPENDIx VI 


RELATION TO PREVIOUS AND PARALLED 
S DULDLES OR) GRUIRALSA GING Tis 


The present study may be regarded as a phase of investigation 
incident to the efforts of agencies of rural welfare to redefine and 
adjust their work after the abnormal World War expansion. 
Although there is no formal connection between it and previous 
investigations in the same held, it has a certain historic continuity 
with earlier efforts. 

During the two and one- chalet years following 1918, a large group 
of national agencies doing rural social work undertook a co- 
operative permanent council. A formulation of general problems 
and methods of rural work, an outlined statement of the program 
of each important agency, and a partial sketch of a proposed 
manual of rural social work were reported to the second National 
Country Life Association meeting in 1919 and published in its 
proceedings. 

A second conference of the agencies took action expressing 
dissatisfaction with the outlined statement of the work of national 
agencies just referred to because of its indefinite and blanket char- 
acter. It referred the former report “back to the agencies for 
revision on the basis of present organization and method including 
more definite statements of means and methods employed on a 
strictly rural basis by those bodies serving both urban and rural 
communities.” It also voted “that agencies be requested to indi- 
cate the definite territory which they occupied as of date of March 
SLAIOIO” 

The National Council of Social Agencies Doing Rural Work 
(affiliated with the American Country Life Association), which 
grew out of this effort, has now in preparation a directory and 
a statement of rural program covering all types of agencies. 

The present study was historically coincident with several 
notable efforts of the major agencies to reéxamine their rural 
work for themselves. The Young Men’s Christian Association, 
for example, had three commissions investigating its rural work 
in various phases during 1924. The Young Women’s Christian 
Association has secured a ese ete from Mr. Henry Ford for 


APPENDIX VI 247 


rural experimental work to cover a period of three years, and is 
engaged in redefining its problems and setting up its methods 
of investigation. 

Other agencies have not so completely identified, nor adminis- 
tratively separated, their rural work. They are nevertheless in- 
creasingly recognizing its importance and its special problems. 
For a second time, the Boy Scouts of America have appointed a 
commission to report on rural work. The Girl Scouts have re- 
cently issued for New York State the first report in which their 
rural work is statistically segregated. 


AppenpiIx VII 
STATISTICS OF RURAL WORK OF THREE 


NATIONAL AGENCIES 


ORGANIZED ASSOCIATIONS OF THE YOUNG WOMEN’S 
CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 1923 * 


CouNTY OR COMPARABLE DISTRICT 


Number of 

State and County Communities 
Connecticut 

Ptareiord VC OUnLy  ) Saeae a. 23 
Delaware . 

Northern) District e:.ce cess 11 
Maine 

MW OPKACountys (Loge yale enter 13 
Massachusetts 


Western Massachusetts District 14 


New Jersey 
Burlington County) +... eeeene 25 


New York 
Chautauqua County .......... 26 
(sreene (COunty “easiest sGin ee 4 
Stole | Comnty ye, wa sant see ents WZ 


Vermont 
Five Districts under Vermont 
Courieil Ree ena vous cee 


West Virginia 


Payette County ivi cies acs aeiele 18 
Florida 

Hinellas WWOunty a, a acon 10 

WoOliubiay County ue Kuga ase 8 
Kentucky 

Harlan Gountven sae var kes oA 


South Carolina 
ppattanbirey Gounty ye... 5 ton. 11 


Members 
Junior Adult 
300 200 
264 Vola! 
200 686 
218 58 
453 2,105 
650 504 
150 50 
275 75 
1,500 7 
266 300 
175 225 
147 132 
147 132 


“ Data from the Rural Communities Department, Y. W. C. A. 


+: Total: 


248 


Budget 
$3,300.00 


3,190.00 
3,302.31 
2,800.00 
7,306.32 


9,086.34 
1,000.00 
3,300.00 


5,000.00 
3,000.00 


5,420.00 
6,000.00 


3,800.00 


4,000.00 


APPENDIX VII 
ORGANIZED ASSOCIATIONS OF THE YOUNG WOMEN’S 


CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 1923 (Continued) 


CoUNTY OR COMPARABLE DISTRICT 


State and County 
Towa 


Cherokee County .......... 
Brana COONEY 5 onde 8 4s co stri 
PROCS Ws, 5. van s's's vs be 


Michigan 
Hillsdale County 


Wentord County. i.4...:23 


Minnesota 


Goodhue County (1922) ... 
Mower County (1922) ..... 


Ohio 
Van Wert County ........ 
Clark County 


South Dakota 
Beadle County 
Brookings County ......... 


Oklahoma 


N. E. Oklahoma District .... 


Texas 


Galveston District (1922) .... 
Rio Grande Valley District .. 


Kansas 


McPherson County (1922) ... 


Nebraska 
Aare COIINICY Hy bss ldak ss 458 
Adams County 


e@ovreereee eee 


California 
Pmiparial County io. ce%. o's 
Tulare County 


Washington 


EECA COUNEV nc. sy ees oes 


® Total. 


oe eee eesee 


eevee srer eee eee 


249 


Budget 


$3,352.00 
2,658.00 
2,843.00 


3,262.00 
4,711.00 


6,000.00 


4,000.00 


eevee ee 


3,000.00 


¥ 33,702.00 
8,003.94 


Number of Members 
Communities Junior Adult 
alt oa 274 189 
Bee 2a 363 
eae 411 95 
haid he 234 276 
weg s. 170 428 
TER BA | 87 269 
Te ded | 150 50 
a eG 168 596 
aa BS: 273 10 
Vea: 250 250 
SEN 8 (No further information) 
7 725 400 
6 120 100 
a 850 * 
10 111 250 
ae 4 398 500 
re) 421 559 
Paty st G 233 440 
Lcehet 431 304 


? Including a small city association under the Rural Communities Department. 


250 APPENDIX VII 


YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION COUNTY 
ORGANIZATIONS, 1923 * 


% 
me Groups Membership 
ees . 
: = 5 3 = “ z a 3 = 
ee Noe S aes 3 3S S 
State and County 2O G 5 = aS = 9 Ww x 
California 
Fresno ¢eiva ah. 13 2 28 495 wie 495 495 75 
Humboldt) 34 2:40. e's 2 15 420 se 420 420 24 
Kaneohe eek 13 1 22 325 45 An 45 45 
Los Angeles, 

Central District. 6 1 13 So oe 332 364 364 
Orange het es 14 5 Seay oo 65 720 785 355 
San Bernardino... 6 1 26 664 ATR 664 664 
Santa) Clara aimsu. 10 1 34 464 125 339 464 125 
San ierO tana. . s 5 1 4 65 20 45 65 30 
Stavisiausi ies asco 8 1 5 118 100 200 300 200 
WY uba-outter ssc.) 5 1 5 125 Mee 125 125 10 

Connecticut 
Pairheld sis awa, 25 1 14 261 200 261 461 200 
Hartiordvis. nek 23 3 31 739 830 444 1,274 Jaa 
TATCOMO eon ven ee 14 1 17 177, 83 139 222 
Middlesex ........ 12 1 10 144 79 109 188 
New Haven ...... 6 1 14 190 300 190 490 273 
New London ..... 8 1 8 123 123 123 
TT OllAnG ie. ce oie ct 13 1 17 251 170 197 367 283 
Windham scien 5 13 1 16 193 128 144 Ze 
Florida 
ranean es Ocstee 5 Z 9 131 27 27 26 

ral Pept nat Ae ily ae 7 a ee 90 90 80 

Volusta tater an 14 3 16 200 13 47 60 
Illinois 

DWP are esas seas 7 1 9 197 150 A 271 271 
Indiana 

INGDle thee io soa cine 8 1 16 310 60 60 
Iowa ? 

Black (Hawk es... 13 1 Gs. 325 165 ao 165 

Buena Vista ..... 8 1 17 250 75 250 325 325 

Calhoun. eee Ale 9 1 18 243 40 203 243 150 

Madison. us vars 8 | 8 247 43 247 290 43 

Marion) faite ales 7. 1 13 Sef 265 361 626 228 
Kansas 

McPherson ...-¢... 10 1 13 270 ae 270 270 er 

raten. Gitte ok cee 1 -, 4 93 fen 93 93 150 
Kentucky 

Bourbon reas tes isos’. 1 7 150 63 157 220 202 
Maine 

Cumberland. ...:... 17 1 9 128 he’. 128 128 25 


* Year Book and Official Roster 1928, Young Men’s Christian Associations of 
North America. 


APPENDIX VII 251 


YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION COUNTY 
ORGANIZATIONS, 1923 (Continued) 


Roce 
o8 Groups Membership 
SE a tes 
SE ‘= 3S u oat & 
| : Sin. ~ = S s 
=s BS he et S S 3 in 
State and County 2G HO = wo a gQ x 
Massachusetts 
Plvnontir ai. o., 18 1 14 186 hy 186 186 
Michigan 
IRE ae ASAT celta x 9 1 23 2 15 70 85 
PBC AIG 9 ok eed oss 6 4 1 i 70 50 50 50 
POE ey Pk we tobedgs 6 1 J ie. 25 pAS 25 
juiyingstoty 24. <3. 4 1 6 155 120 100 220 165 
Momealim 2c... +s 7 1 8 137 op: 137 137 
SORIA i cache cts we 19 Z 2 480 150 400 550 
SOth awa teu jeu. 6 1 15 Whee 135 aif Ys 75 
SB Wt LT Re Sg a 5 2 16 186 10 176 186 80 
Missouri 
MN MSHOTAWS PAs 5 .0's 4 9 1 5 122 24 ae 46 24 
Nebraska 
Ur a Bg WO aon CRA A 6 1 10 156 350 200 550 oh 
metrersen 6. o. 6 ho cs 8 1 6 160 350 160 510 350 
Ecorse bititt wy . a. 1 1 10 165 tee 165 165 206 
New Hampshire 
Cheshite ab’. ose. a) 14 1 14 185 20 165 185 
Rockingham ...... 27 1 9 183 hey 183 183 
Statord Va Sb cals 14 1 19 zie 645 231 876 
Sulligan «ue e) ste 9 2 9 189 61 72 133 
New Jersey 
Meter Leis dio o 25 2 25 624 815 PACT AY Ga 
Berkootot, fis. s+ 2. a Z 45 671 hn 311 31] 
@oresti a 1 we ee 16 Z 31 734 216 518 734 
Gloucester ........ Z1 2 SV PPA WAAL easy h 250s PLS) 
Hunterdon ....... 11 2 25 972 121 
Riereee nye sen es 10 1 16 278 556 278 834 
Moamouth .. 6:55 11 1 20 273 144 211 goo 
SHCITIEE SEU U.)sina oss» é 20 5 23 395 225 290 515 
SitRRe a ver BSR 9 1 10 240 50 140 190 
New York 
Aihleshaty = Aes. 8 1 8 283 306 py 306 134 
Chantauttia. aio... 13 1 15 360 hp 360 360 aby 
Herkiiner) 6... ..'.- 10 1 6 140 Bee 140 140 140 
NATE OP a Ges caie'd 8 6 1 8 75 DR 75 75 uy 
Nassau-Suffolk ... 26 6 aN 194 5 199 129 
Oneida. eran nek 3 1 120 80 200 200 
Gir Atees is ceo es 7 1 12 265 35 245 280 iy 
PEUDETI: Oise nae 08s 6 1 9 216 ante 216 216 150 
Westchester ...... 3h 2 2 AY 40 68 108 at. 
AV GOT) ceo «= 7 i 6 210 Ment 210 210 100 


252 APPENDIX VII 


YOUNG MEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION COUNTY 
ORGANIZATIONS, 1923 (Continued) 


que ; 
os Groups Membership 
$3 Be . 
oak ee aS 2 % 3 2 
BS Say hse mutt ele 
Stateand County 26 GO & SSB = gm & % 
North Dakota 
Barnesiss ssa weke ps 7 1 11 116 116 116 
Ohio 
Hamilton iis! ts s's 16 1 21 208 82 253 335 312 
Laker west eet. 7 1 9 168 78 138 216 
Mediria'i),s tatsculec 11 1 14 316 140 316 456 
Montgomery ..... iS 1 18 126 54 72 126 126 
Portage saciey, eas ak 14 1 15 308 16 180 196 167 
Starkiesetitie sess 5 1 5 65 90 145 235 235 
Suri ee cet bees 10 1 13 185 125 125 45 
Wryandots 8 a.ioei 7 1 8 120 40 120 160 110 
Oregon 
Larson yet ieee 4 1 4 77 50 77 Vf 
Marion Ssin. oes 10 1 18 358 90 358 448 
South Carolina 
Florence.) save... 9 1 9 191 283 tk 283 431 
EAS eats te Uhre 8 1 15 eit 248 162 410 274 
Texas 
ATIPelinaly ewes vers 4 1 1 Ze 87 18 105 ale 
Parison Ske aca as is 1 6 85 ay 85 85 22 
ETAL wan etl et 10 1 9 170 oat 170 170 RY: 
Pinta neshaa i cae 20 1 20 516 87 429 516 150 
Vermont 
Windsor S608 oes ie 15 1 ay ca 250 Sag 250 250 
Washington 
Pierce. 2 ssa. 6 1 12 250 175 225 400 225 
Wisconsin 
ALTON Uke hoe en 3 4 61 72 54 126 120 
Dodwesig ors ioe as 6 1 8 170 12 12 i 
ta on Ree 7 ABN byt 13 1 17 a7 50 50 
Wralwortitin tenes ee 15 1 26 400 400 400 10 
CANADA 
Ontario 
SINCOE NS Gk able ce 4 1 25 275 150 225 375 
VV entworth fo. fenne 1 24 250 SE 250 250 


Prince Edward Island 
Prince Ueae wae ik fx! 1 36 554 Pas 440 765 Re 


APPENDIX VII 


253 


BOY SCOUT COUNTY COUNCILS AND COUNCILS IN TOWNS 


OF LESS THAN 10,000 


THIRTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Boy Scouts oF AMERICA, 1924 


Councils in Towns 


Ist Class County of Less Than 


oo 

i=) 

S 

New England = 
Beane 2925 ..' 1 
Massachusetts . 4 


Middle Atlantic 
New York... ./ 12 
New Jersey ... 4 
Pennsylvania .. 8 


Ber Ete 9 
LCi Mea Cee Z 
AUINOIN bees 3s Z 
Riivhigan 2 os). Z 
Wisconsin ..... 
West No. Central 
Minnesota .... 1 
BGR a ok ae oe 1 
Missouri's oa’. < 2 
South Dakota . 
Nebraska ..... iW 
Weasieas yo 2. 1 
Southern 
EP WINiIa hice. 1 
North Carolina. 1 
South Carolina. 1 
ceorgia . S002 2 
Bioraiae sss. 2 
Kentucky ..... 1 
Tennessee .... 1 
Waapsina 23s. s 1 
VAEREUSAS. c.5 5s 
Oklsahoma..... 8 
Ou sea 3)''s 4 
Mountain 
TOT TARA sy es to 4 
TAT a hs ace Z 
Wyoming ..... 1 
Coloradg. cre. 1 
PCa b at 0: ea 2 
Estalte tie sect ks 2 
Pacific 
Washington ... 1 
CIPO O OY ody canes 1 
California’ .... 14 


Councils 


Councils 10,000 Total 
% % 

i ee WE WH OK WS HO 
Se See ee SS a) he aes 
Se S <S b=, =) S a Ss = aS 
SH ed a ahd 4 tome Li ae 
23 63 1 23 
99 1,077 4 99 
547 12,478 ya Fe 
108 ,330 4 108 
526 11,904 POL Leer, 10.5) 541 
143 2,953 9 143 
37 7 2 37 
33 665 1 1 17 4 34 
37 653 2 37 

1 RR bo 1 9 

81 = 1,574 Zi LONee oa 3 96 
25 461 Ln isueeos Z 38 
29 556 Z 29 
* 4 3 73 1 3 

29 594 3 29 
7 108 1 Zz 

2 42 1 2 

17 294 1 iz 
7 120 1 7 

52:9 1,078 2 52 
27 47609 Fi) Sue t4 3 32, 
Ze 262 1 22 
28 7 fe | fe 63 Z 30 
11 213 1 11 
1 9 141 1 9 

124 2,620 PSEA G Ref Tiel os 
112.2425 4 TZ 
39 806 4 39 
42 873 1 Oy 21.6 3 51 
7 153 1 rf 

18 316 1 18 
42 835 Z 42 
68 1,542 ve 68 
13 288 1 bina bes) Pe 21 
8 141 1 8 

330 7,096 1 Aplie 15. isos 


102 2693 56,469 16 105 2255 118 2,798 


* 2nd Class Councils. 


58,724 





INDEX 


Accounting, methods of, in na- 
tional agencies, 73 
Activities, duration of, 144 
Actual programs vs. advertised, 
143 
Adjustment, 
advantages from point of view 
of, ‘225 
approval of incidental, 207 
of the cooperating agencies, 222 
possible solutions, 207 
radical local solutions disap- 
proved, 208 
re-relating “Christian” agencies 
to the church, 208 
suggested aspects of, 208 
Advisors, in this study, 239 
Adult membership, 82 
Advancement of members, degree 
of, 70 
Advertised programs vs. actual, 
143 
Age, of living units, 68 
of volunteer workers, 95 
tendencies, 69 
Approach, primary method of, 
192 
Approval, qualified, 131 
Assumptions, 
general, 177 
peculiar to the agencies, 175 
underlying, 175 
Attitudes, general, 170 
the most prevalent, 171 


Boy Scouts of America, 25, 29, 
31, 40, 42, 43, 45, 46, 49, 50, 


64, 65, 68, 69, 79; 74-80, 85, 
255 


86, 90-92, 96, 100-103, 
108, 110, II4-II7, 119, 
126, 129, 130, 134, 141, 145- 
147, 152, 156, 157, 159, 162, 
165, 190, 199, 209, 223, 232, 
238, 240, 246 


106, 
124- 


“Call” to the work, the, 175 
Camp Fire Girls, 25, 30, 30, 42, 
45, 46, 53; 64, 65, 69, 79, 74- 
80, 85, 90-92, 96, 100-103, III, 
117, 147, 154, 209, 223, 231, 
240 
Change of agency in a community, 
reason for, 72 
Charts, see table of contents 
“Christian” agencies, re-relating 
the, to the church, 208 
Chronology of the study, 236 
Church, 
agencies originating in, 225 
the rural, 183 
Cities, starting work with, 51 
City, interaction of country and, 
179 
Commercial clubs, 87 
Committees, 
central territorial, 97 
local, 94 
organization in local, 45, 48 
Community council, the, 221 
Community organizations, rela- 
tion of agencies to, 84 
Community secretary, the, 221 
Communities, 
adult membership in local, 82 
duration as affected by size of, 
68 


256 HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Communities, Cont. 
general reactions of, 128 
larger independent, 194 
taking root in local, 64 
Compensation, rural, 178 
Competition, 135 
reactions to, 138 
Continuity, degree of, in local 
units, 72 
Continuity of influence, question 
of, 182 
Cooperating agencies, adjustment 
of, 222 
list of, 238 
Cooperation, 
general conditions of, proposed 
experiments, 218 
methods of, 134 
methods and degree of local, 


plan for experiment (see “Ex- 
periment” ) 
practical justification of experi- 
ments in, 216 
proposed fields of experiment, 
218 
remedies sought for present de- 
ficiencies, 217 
special motives for experiment 
in) 205) 
suggested experiments in, 215 
Coéperative territorial organiza- 
tion, experiments in, 225 
Country, interaction of city and, 
179 
County unit, when justified, 196 
when inadmissible, 197 
Cultural relationships, 70 


Development, results of non-so- 
cial, 181 

Differences between and among 
agencies, 39, 65, 105 

Directorates, overlapping, 226 

Divergencies, 149 


Duration, as affected by size of 
community, 68 
of promotional organizations, 
65 


Environmental relationships, 70 
Executive, characteristics of the 
territorial, 105 
Executives, functions of, as pro- 
fessional supervisors, 108 
joint, 226 
Experiment, plan of (for codper- 
ation) 
action of findings conference, 
220 
arguments for, 219 
permeation of rural territory by 
long-range promotion, 219 
possible details of the plan, 219 
specific objective, 220 


Experiments, 

arguments for effort to cover 
larger rural communities, 
224 


conditions of legitimate, 225 
inclusive, 231 
Experimental tests, a series of, 

234 

duration and possible auspices, 
234 

recognized problems and diffi- 
culties, 234 

warning and appeal, 235 


Farmers’ organizations, 185 
Field investigators, finances rated 
by, 121 
Field data vs. headquarters infor- 
mation, 244 
Finance, 
facts of territorial, 118 
in territorial organization, 118 
is work worth cost, 121 
issue of financial support, 195 
problem of, 192 


INDEX 


Finance, Cont. 
rated by field investigators, 121 
representative opinion on, 121 
what turns the tide, 122 
Financial methods and shortcom- 
ings, 120 
Findings conference, action of 
February, 1925, 224, 232 


Girl Reserves, 83, 84, 160, I91 

Girl Scouts, Inc., 25, 30, 39, 45, 
46, 53, 65; 69, 79> 74-80, go- 
92, 96, 100, 103, III, 117, 130, 
134, 147, 154, 192, 223, 238, 
240, 246 

Group organization, importance 
of, 180 


Handicaps, rural, 177 

Headquarters information vs. 
field data, 244 

Tat -¥, Gl, G4;3191 


Incorporated places, 
of, 45 

Indigenous agencies, attitude of 
leaders of, 130 

Idealism, assimilation of religious 
and secular, 212 

Indigenous vs. national agencies, 
185 

Influence, continuity of, 182 


occupancy 


Joint executives, 226 
Junior Extension Clubs, 30, 33, 


34, 36, 64, 134, 222 
Kiwanis, 65, 87, 231 


Lapsed local organizations, 65 
Leaders, 86 
attitude of, of indigenous agen- 
cies, 130 
observed types of, 106 
volunteer group, 95 


257 


Leadership, 
as organized by the agencies, 


94 
lack of efficient, 93 
Living units, age of, 68 
Local committees, 94 
Local councils of youth, 227 
Local territorial organization, 40 


Major issues, 187 

Meeting places, 85 

Members, in sample territory, 34 

Membership, estimates of, 240 

Men’s service clubs, 87 

Methodology, 242 

Methods, of codperation, 134 

Methods in financing and their 
shortcomings, 120 


National agencies, doing philan- 
thropic work, 25 
relations between, 132 
vs. indigenous agencies, 185 
Naturalization, 
advantages from point of view 
of, 228 
definition of, 199 
further aspects of, 201 
incomplete, explained, 200 
unsolved issues, 202 
summary, 204 
Non-social development, results 
of, 181 


Occupancy, 

advantages from point of view 
iice7, 

incorporated places, 45 

non-incorporated places, 46 

total, of communities, 46 

of incorporated places, 45 

relation of intensive to long- 
range, 194 

through intensive organization, 


188 


258 


Operation of agencies, 38-50 
Opinion of work, favorable, 157 
unfavorable, 161 
Organization (s), 
experiments in cooperative ter- 
ritorial, 225 
experiments in intensive, 220 
farmers’, 185 
finances of territorial, 118 
forms of, 40 
frequency and distribution of 
types of, 41 
history of local, 66 
importance and authority, 176 
importance of group, 180 
lapsed local, 65 
local territorial, 40 
occupancy through 
193 
origins of county, 42 
property of county, 87 
relation of agencies to commu- 
nity, 84 
relations of organized groups to 
local parent, 222 
unequal diffusion of, 52 
Origins, of promotional organiza- 
tions, 65 


Parent organizations, relations of 
organized groups to local, 


222 
Philosophy, lack of a clear-cut, 
183 
Professional supervisors, func- 


tions of executives as, 108 
Program (s), 
a unified, 226 
actual vs. advertised, 143 
content of local, 144 
the common core of variant, 
145 
Promotion, long range, 
present methods of, 190 
proposed long-range, 199 


intensive, | 


* 


HOW SHALL COUNTRY YOUTH BE SERVED? 


Property of county organizations, 
87 
Public opinion of workers, 107 


Qualified approval, 131 


Reactions, of communities, 127 
Relationships, details of proposed, 


231 
environmental and _ cultural, 
70 
Religious idealism, assimilation 
Otzi2 


Report, position of the, 173 
Resources, rural, 178 
Rotary Club, 43, 65, 87, 231 
Rural, 

church, 183 

compensations and_ resources, 

178 

extent of work, 31 

handicaps, 177 

school, 184 


Sample territory, members in, 32 
what it proves, 33 

School, the rural, 184 

Secretary, how much can one do, 
IIO 

Secretary, community, 221 

Sectarianism, how avoid, in spon- 
sorship, 88 

Secular idealism, 212 

Segregation of suburban areas, 
188 

Special constituencies, 89 

Sponsorship, 86 

Statistical treatment, 243 

Statistics, as aid to agencies, 73 

Suburban areas, segregation of, 
188 

Supervision, effects of, 71 

intensive, 104, 196 

Support, the issue of financial, 

195 


INDEX 


Tables, illustrative, see table of 


contents 

Territorial committees, 97 

Territorial finance, facts of, 
118 

Territorial organization, experi- 
ments in cooperative, 225 

Testimony, 244 

Time given to volunteer service, 
97 

Timeliness, special, 229 

Towns, starting work with, 51 

Types, observed, of leaders, 106 


Value, of work, 155 
elements of, recognized, 156 
Volunteer group leaders, age of, 


Volunteer service, time given to, 
96 


War Work councils, 43 
Women’s clubs, 65 


259 


Work, the, is it worth while, 155 
Workers, public opinion of, 107 


Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion, 25, 27, 31, 32, 39, 42, 43, 
45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 64, 65, 69, 
71; 74-80, 84-87, 90-92, 96, 
100-103, 105, 106-108, IIo, 
II4-117, 119, 124-126, 1209, 
130, 134, I41, 143-147, 151, 
152, 156, 157; 162, 165, Igo, 
195; 202, (208, 201,223." ea5) 
226, 231, 238, 240, 245 

Young Women’s Christian Asso- 
Ciation,<25 26.40. 32, 40.42, 
43, 45, 49, 49, 50, 53, 64, 65, 
69, 71, 74-80, 84, 85, 87, go- 
92, 96, 100-103, 106, 108, II0, 
II4-I17, 119, 124-126, 129, 
130, I4I, 145-147, 153, 156, 
157, 160, 163, 165, 190, 195, 
208/211, 212) 229,225 neaks 
238, 240, 245 












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